Carnival Clash: Band Leader Confronts President Over Missing Prize

After spotlighting Sacred Heart College’s commitment to shaping well‑rounded students in San Ignacio, we turn now to growing unrest within the Belize Carnival Association. During Friday’s press conference, a band leader openly confronted President Patrick Thompson, insisting he was denied a third‑place prize he says was promised after two competing bands were disqualified. The challenge not only reignited questions about transparency within the association, but also raised wider concerns about whether unclaimed prize funds were ever returned to the National Celebrations Commission. Here is the question posed, and the president’s response.

 

Leroy Smith, Band Leader, Fort Revelers

“Mr. Thompson and the board of the Carnival association promised us that even if we don’t have our count to take part he will still grant one of us the third place prize but he disqualified both of us and he said he send back the money to NCC. So I am asking NCC, did they receive the third place money back?”

 

Patrick Thompson, President, Belize Carnival Association

“In our rule book again, state that to be eligible you must have 100 revelers, right? And the two bands, yes, they did not, they competed in the competition and one of the bands yes indeed had came in third based on points, but the thing is that they did not have the amount of revelers, so that was what made them being disqualified. It is not that we disqualified them for anything else, it was that they just didn’t have the numbers. And that was one of our key thing when it comes to being eligible. And we sing this to these bands over and over and yes, when they talk about the cash prize is that we are the ones who would, we don’t get these prize money in our account. All right? NCC is the entity that provide the prize. And when we have our winners, we forward those winners to NCC who deals with the prizes for our events, and they’re the one who issued the check that we give at the award night.”

 

Shane Williams

“So the association doesn’t have that prize money as they’re alluding?”

 

Patrick Thompson

“No, we, we don’t have that money because then there were nobody to, so NCC did not write that check for that third place because they were, they were disqualified. They did not meet the criteria.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: