How To Register A Costume Band In Grenada

I made information technology to Spicemas!

Of all the carnivals I attended this yr, this was my about anticipated one, and I am so glad I experienced it, despite the highs and lows. Well-nigh of the fetes were keen but mas with Lavish was a different story. Read on…

PRE-Carnival

Ring Launch: People say Pretty Mas is non the pinnacle of Spicemas, but I could not imagine traveling all the way to Grenada and not playing mas. We did some enquiry on the bands and decided to go with Lavish, a new mas band with a band leader based out of New York City. Why? For me, I liked the ease of open advice with the band, the marketing seemed professional and modern and of course, at the launch, their preentation "Dynasty" was impressive. I chose to play in Flush, a small premium female-merely, Frontline only section. I was also a color I hadn't worn before, pink.

Registration: Registration launched about a week subsequently, vivid and early on a Sabbatum forenoon, and sections were selling out like hot cakes! My section sold out within a few hours. Registration was uncomplicated for most people - you create an account on the platform, choose your department, sizing and options and make the $200 deposit. Flush sold out before I had a chance to annals and I reached out to the band leader to ask her to open upward a slot and she did. I was grateful for that.

Advice: Communication with the band was seamless and splendid until distribution time. Ane could expect to receive a response from the ring within minutes if contacted via Instagram. That was the only fashion of communication I used, so I do not know what the response time was like via email. The band shared updates regarding the Mon Wear, costume sales, and product (or then nosotros thought) through Instagram.

A group chat was created by the band leader a few weeks earlier my arrival to Grenada, and while I questioned the point of a individual chat, it was cool getting information simply privy to masqueraders. It besides served equally another manner to communicate with the band leader regarding questions or concerns, and I appreciated that. However, advice went from over-sharing to severely lacking to disappearing altogether, peculiarly later on the third or fourth distribution schedule modify. Details beneath.

DURING CARNIVAL

Costume Pickup: Readers, I have NEVER in my life experienced such disorganization, miscommunication, non-communication, anarchy and disarray. I do try to give bands some margin of mistake considering distribution is a hectic time, but this was a free-for-all shit show that HEAVILY afflicted people's schedules, mood and most importantly, money. I volition walk you lot through the series of events.

Piickup was originally scheduled to offset the Thursday before mas and was all of a sudden changed. No reason was given at the time. Afterward it was changed again on Friday, an Instagram live video featuring the ring leader and main designer was made to address the reason for the modify - we were told it was due to a late delivery of packages that independent primal pieces of each costume. Therefore, all sections were going to be distributed on a single day, Saturday.

On Saturday morning, it was changed again. Instead of a full mean solar day of distribution as promised, just 3/7 sections were set up and distribution was moved to a later time in the 24-hour interval. Distribution for the other sections was going to accept place all day on Sunday. Please keep in mind that mas was on Monday and Tuesday.

On Sunday morning time, distribution was changed even so again with section distribution to take place at specific time blocks. So ridiculous! Later all the inconvenience, the band continued to dictate when masqueraders should pick up their fully-paid-for costumes. As expected, the fourth dimension frames given were non adhered to and most costumes were non ready.

I arrived at the pickup site at 9pm on Sunday night. The reason I got in that location and so late was because masqueraders were keeping each other informed in the group chat regarding the (lack of) progress at pickup. At that place were tens of messages being sent per minute with complaints, acrimony, frustration, updates and horror stories of people waiting hours at pickup with no anwers and no costumes.

When I finally arrived to option upwardly my costumes, I was blown away past the sheer havoc. There were people seated, looking disheveled, upset and worn out; there was a grouping of tables sectioning off the other half of the room and behind those tables were the band leader and masqueraders volunteering their time to assist with distribution. Can you lot believe that? Spend your big money to be staff, being scolded by other masqueraders who don't understand you're trying to do a favor. Crazy. At the back of the room was a stage closed off past a huge curtain, where other people (whether Lavish staff or volunter masqueraders, who knows?) were sorting out pieces and putting packages together.

On the main flooring, only three sections were fully available - Showstopper, Flush and Profuse. The others were still unavailable, with costume pieces arriving intermittently - a backpack hither, a headpiece there, simply no bodywear. How Sway.

Presently plenty, masqueraders were told to focus on getting their Mon wear, wristbands and cups in order to play on the road the following day. What most the costumes? Well, they were advised to, and I kid you non, PICK UP THEIR COSTUMES ON THE ROAD ON A TRUCK DURING MAS THE NEXT Twenty-four hours. You can only imagine the uproar.

In that location were no explanations about WHY there was a filibuster - masqueraders were only told "all of your costumes are in Grenada". If so, where were they? People had many theories - the designer was still making pieces in a house/hotel somewhere, the pieces were being transported in a small car and so couldn't fit many pieces at once, the costumes were all the way in another parish and would have hours to get in, et cetera. The lack of information made everyone tense, nervous and angry, and the demand for refunds was loud and firsthand.

I was able to get my costume. Still, there was no social club or security verifying that I was who I said I was. I literally went backside the tables, saw a bag with my name on information technology, checked the contents and walked away with the purse. I went to some other table where I saw my headpiece and grabbed the best-looking 1 of the shitty agglomeration. So went to the backpacks - on the dirty ground, mind yous!! - and found the one wih the least amount of shedding. All of this was done without a single Lavish staff member checking who I was or my credentials and ID. I could have been anyone! I would not exist surprised at all if people'southward items were stolen.

It was another struggle just to go a cup! And y'all were lucky if you got a cup with a straw.

In the meantime, the band leader had left the group conversation then most advice was coming from other masqueraders. The closest we got to any sort of "official" data came from ii friends of the band leader who had no official roles in Lavish and were only helping their friend out.

I had never experienced such unprofessionalism and disrespect from a business, and patience had definitely run out amid masqueraders at this indicate.

Around midnight, after waiting for 3 hours, nosotros came to the conclusion that the male costumes were non going to arrive. The male Monday clothing shorts came in and were distributed to the men who had hung around. Soon later that, we left to become some rest for jouvert and the road.

Picking up my boyfriend'southward costume on Monday night/Tuesday morn was only every bit bad, if not worse. We originally wanted to go earlier Monday Night Mas simply after our feel the night before, we knew we would just be wasting our time and miss an amazing experience. Therefore, we opted to go subsequently Mon Nighttime Mas. We arrived at the pickup location at around 1am, and I really expected that at this late arrival, all of the items would surely exist at that place and it would be a swift pickup. Particularly, because we were merely there to get a male costume. Aren't male costumes supposed to exist super low maintenance and simple? Even so, information technology was another late nighttime involving a lack of costumes with no explanations and more promises of backpacks and bodywear existence delivered ON THE Road the next day. My young man ended up getting his "costume" - though it was still missing pieces - and nosotros left at around 4am. The road was supposed to start at 11am.

Overall, anybody was wearied, beyond frustrated, and frankly disgusted by the treatment we were given.

What a plow of events.

Costume: My costume was pretty from afar. It photographed well. But it was definitely non an exact replica of the advertised costume. At that place were a few things about it that were different and fabricated it look a little inexpensive. If you came upward shut to inspect the costume, y'all saw the exposed glue and the gems had non been shined. The gems on the crown were very frail. I am actually not a fan of exposed cardboard on backpacks, but I will say that the feathers were beautiful when seen from the front end. Because of the stress endured to go this costume, I think I appreciated information technology more than I would have in another circumstance. I suffered too much and I was gonna slay, dammit!

Expectation vs Reality

TO Rate MY Road Feel: half dozen.v/x

The reason this rating is even as high every bit it is is because of Monday mas. Tuesday mas was decent at best.

The saving grace for the band is that the masqueraders were determined to make the best of their plight. We were tired but set up to drown our misery away with liquor and soca.

I had planned to stay domicile, and relax in the puddle all day after the shenanigans of the night earlier. I was tiredt. But jab jab gives you powers, because it put me in such a good mood that around 2pm, I decided to go out on the route.

Drinks. Non once did I have an effect getting drinks from the truck. They had a variety, including the popular favorites Johnnie Walker, Hennessy, Ciroc and an assortment of rums. There was also champagne. The bartenders served on both sides of the truck, they were quick and efficient and I did not have to wait longer than 3 minutes for a drinkable.

Food. I ate on Monday and that was a terrible thought for me. I fell sick and I know it was the food I ate on the road. The chicken looked half-cooked in the eye and afterward a couple of tentative bites, I threw information technology abroad. I had a few bites of the tasteless macaroni pie and threw that away as well.Afterward that experience, I chose not to eat annihilation on the road on Tuesday and warned my friends about it. The next twenty-four hour period, I was not surprised to hear that several people got ill subsequently eating the food that was served on Tuesday. That sucked.

Music. The DJs really did their best to turn up the crowd and bring up morale. Simply I felt like the music was great on Monday and severely lacking on Tuesday - were at that place different DJs? Overall though, I enjoyed the heavy Grenadian soca playlists and sure, there was some repetition of songs but I heard a smashing mashup of all types of soca from across the Caribbean.

Lack of security. Lavish had NO security. No one to tell you lot to motility out of the way of the truck, no ropes on the sidelines, no crowd control at all. And it was especially needed on Tuesday afternoon when the spectators gained entry to the bands, taking pictures, dancing and hogging up precious space such that those of united states with large backpacks could not move. I had to become a scrap ambitious to wrestle my style to the front of the trucks for some infinite to breathe. I found information technology quite dangerous, especially when information technology got night, considering of the huge, open drains that line the streets of Grenada. It would take been very easy for someone to autumn in, especially if they were trying to move through the congestion.

Time management. The trucks left very tardily on both days. Monday's starting time time was supposed to be 1pm and ended upwardly being 3pm. Similarly, Tuesday's start time was 11am and information technology ended up being 3pm. I knew Lavish was not a competing ring just that was ridiculous.

No stage. Just an FYI.

Postal service-Funfair

It has been 2 weeks since mas and Lavish masqueraders are still waiting on deserved refunds. Some have received offerings of $30, $l, $100, all of which I find quite disrespectful given the headaches and low quality products received. A few have received larger or full refunds.

The statement from the ring - released a full 2 days after carnival - revealed no further clarity or explanation virtually why the gross mishaps fifty-fifty occurred, maintaining the band'due south new lack of transparency. Masqueraders were further censored from expressing their opinions or relaying their experiences when they turned off the social media comments. Emails, text and calls have also largely gone unanswered.

I don't know if the band will return in 2020, but I hope they learn the key expectations in customer service, crunch direction and project management. Many of the issues experienced this year could have been tempered with a fiddling maturity, skillful client service and better public relations. Y'all let me know if this advice is heeded. Notwithstanding, I volition NOT be playing with Lavish again anytime soon.

Did you play with Lavish? How was your experience in Grenada this year?

Tell me beneath! I'd beloved to hear from y'all.

Until the side by side carnival,
Sandra

NB: SPICEMAS 2020 IS ON Baronial 10 & 11, 2020!

Sandra Manjie