Punctures hit Firestorm dragon
-- not in Linden Mash jump up
Guyana Chronicle
February 25, 2007
DIGICEL will not be taking its “Firestorm” clan to Linden today for the mining town’s annual Mash Jump Up, dampening the hype to an anticipated showdown with rivals “Blue Power” of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company.
Designer Michelle Cole, who teamed up with her partner Trevor Rose to create the Firestorm theme, said yesterday the band did not register for the Linden event.
She added that the mishaps with the float on Mashramani Day Friday had nothing to do with the decision not to go to Linden.
The Firestorm dragon could not complete the route to the National Park Friday, as the wheels carrying the float were punctured, Cole said.
She said the band changed four wheels from the starting point at Camp Street to the Irving and Vlissengen Road junction – halfway to the National Park. She said it was disappointing, but she still felt the band did well.
Coordinator of the activities in Linden, Mr. Leon Roberts yesterday said Linden was well prepared to stage one of its biggest ever costume and float parade in years, looking forward to the Firestorm and Blue Power contingents converging in the town.
The Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 planned event comes off today and will start from Christiansburg on the west bank of the Demerara River before crossing the Mackenzie/Wismar bridge and end at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground.
Roberts, the Public Information Officer of the RDC of Region 10, said last year’s event was easily the best for a long time, but this year’s is expected to exceed that.
The region did not send a contingent to this year’s activities in Georgetown due to constraints but has been able to finance three floats and efforts are on stream for others to come from the just concluded national costume and float parade in Georgetown held on Friday.
According to Roberts, the programme starts at 12:00h and “so far we have been able to secure sponsorship for sound systems from firms like Ansa McAl, tentative commitments from Digicel and approaches have been made to Banks DIH and DDL as well as GT&T and some other companies…We are awaiting to see what their inputs will be.”
Roberts said the schools in Linden will be participating and their contingents will be placed in front as there will not be any interaction between the youths and the adults as there will be a great effort to separate the children from adults.
He is calling on residents to come out and support the parade and said the three regional costumes will cater for those who want to be part of the fun, as some twenty five tops will be made available for the adults to join the three bands.