A 17 person strong group of revellers left for Leeds on last Tuesday to participate in the 40th Annual West Indian Carnival. The renowned PhunMakers Mas Troupe, recently placed third in the Nevis Culturama Festival and also walked away with the prize for the biggest troupe entered.

PhunMakers Mas Camp

The Phunmakers is currently led by Christine Walwyn one of the founder members of the ten (10) year old Mas Camp. A core group of around ten persons who have been with the troupe from the outset form the backbone of this Mas camp. They are looking forward to the Leeds Experience: One member said ” I’m looking forward to it; I think it’s a good thing for persons who want to play Mas overseas and a good way to form links with nationals abroad.”

The trip to Leeds, in the north of England, is by invitation of the West Indian Carnival Committee to celebrate their 40th Anniversary. Leeds is one of the first West Indian communities to start a ‘Caribbean’ carnival and vies with London each August Bank Holiday for the position of hosting the largest street carnival in Europe. With London having a much larger population Leeds usually takes second place, but for persons not wanting to travel to the capital Leeds is the place to be on August 30th 2010.

The Phunmakers who traditionally integrates some aspect of Kittivisian© culture in their costumes, whether it be from masquerade or clowns or the bull and makes it ‘mas’ is planning to bring an authentic Kittitian flavour to Leeds with their theme ‘Flamboyant Pride’, a range of costumes in the colours of our National Flag and flower. This concept will be carried through to Carnival 2010/11 in St. Kitts as one of the sections for this year.

Leeds participants in Phunmakers are already planning to come to the Federation for the second time for Carnival and to be a part of SKN 2010/11.

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