with other FLOW staff members
On Thursday, June 20th, a press conference was called at the office of FLOW for the presentation of an update on FLOW’s Soca Rave 2019. This event is an important feature of the annual Summer Festival Activities.
Mrs. Jade Reymond-Richardson, Commercial Manager of FLOW, welcomed the press as well as a special guest — to the conference — in the person of Mrs. Hyacinth Bradley who represented the Department of Youth and Culture as Community Services Planner in the Ministry of Social Development.
In boosting the upcoming popular Soca Rave event, Mrs. Reymond-Richardson remarked: “FLOW is extremely pleased to be able to stage its eighth show of Soca. I remember when FLOW Soca Rave was in its first year. We consider our former General Manager, Mr. Mark Romney, to be the brainchild behind what was then the Soca Monarch Competition powered by FLOW, where he would have suggested to the Summer Festival Committee that this event needed to be a part of the Summer Festival activities. Now, in its eighth year, FLOW is proud to have carried this event since its inception.
“The Soca Rave Show is scheduled to take place on Thursday, August 1st at 7:30 p.m. here at the FLOW grounds. This is the second year that it will be hosted on our property, which is quite interesting for our FLOW staff, especially since the company will be in a position to fully take on the financial cost of the show. We are extremely proud to do this, as we consider it to be quite momentous.”
Mrs. Reymond-Richardson noted that this year there are fifteen contenders registered for the two categories, namely the Soca Groovy Monarch Competition and the Soca Power Monarch Competition. She stated that registration ended on May 24th 2019, and she wished to thank all of the Soca contenders for making an effort to register early. She observed that there will be no semi-finals this year, as the Committee organizing the show decided that they are satisfied with the fifteen competitors.
Mrs. Reymond-Richardson continued: “This year we have a few newcomers, but mostly our veteran contenders have re-registered. Our reigning Power King, Mr. Decent, will be competing again against fourteen. This year we have added a new aspect to the competition. We want to make the show interesting to our audience, and fun for our contestants, so we have implemented what we call a ‘Battle Round’ which will take place at the end of the contest while the judges would be tabulating the scores.”
Mrs. Reymond-Richardson said that the ‘Battle Round’ will be in the Power segment and will boost the contestants’ bragging rights where they would have a chance to battle against each other on what will be called a “FLOW tune”.
As far as the prizes are concerned, she said: “This year we are awarding US$3,000 to the Soca King, US$2,000 for the 2nd Runner-up, and US$1,000 for the 3rd place winner. In addition, we are providing a contender’s fee to assist the participants. Each contestant will be given US$100 to assist them in preparing for their performance.”
Finally, Mrs. Hyacinth Bradley spoke on behalf of the Ministry of Social Development and, in particular, the Department of Youth and Culture and the Anguilla Summer Festival. She noted: “We are very pleased for our ongoing partnership with FLOW. Our working relationship was established before Soca Rave and it goes beyond Soca Rave. We believe, no doubt, that Soca Rave 2019 will be a great success. We appreciate all the hard work that goes into the preparation by the organizing Committee.
“We are pleased to recognize the growth of Soca Rave, and we have no doubt that it will continue to develop and become one of the major events in Summer Festival in Anguilla, as well as it would attract audiences from throughout the region. Once again, I would like to reiterate our commitment to FLOW as we continue to support this initiative. We do intend to work with FLOW, even beyond Soca Rave.”
– Staff Reporter, James R. Harrigan
