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GRENADA CARNIVAL ...... More in 2004

JULY 31th, 2004

JULY 31

Outgoing Carnival Queen Alejandra John will be the one to decide whether or not she wants to crown the new "Miss Grenada" on the night of August 5 at a show planned for the National Stadium in Queen's Park.

That's according to Chairperson of the Grenada Carnival Committee (GCC) Jennifer Woodrooffe who was speaking to reporters at a news conference on Monday.

The media briefing was called to announce the names of the finalists for the national Soca and Calypso Monarch competitions scheduled for August 6 and 8 respectively.

Reports are that John, who hails from the parish of St. Patrick's will not be attending this year's event to hand over her crown on the night of the show because she is expecting a baby.

Only a few weeks ago the twenty-four year old was Grenada 's contestant at the Ms. Aquaval Pageant, a regional beauty contest which is held in St. Vincent during their carnival celebrations.

Woodroofe was responding to a question posed by this newspaper as to whether or not they had received any word from John about her being at the show to hand over her crown to the new Carnival Queen.

The GCC Chairperson pointed out that the decision to hand the crown over or not is one the St. Patrick's resident will have to make herself.

She also quelled media reports that John was allowed to participate in the Ms. Aquaval show although she was showing signs of pregnancy.

Woodroofe stated that the outgoing Queen did not trick neither dupe the Queen Show Committee into allowing her to participate in the regional competition.

She based her statements on medical reports in their possession as well as John's chaperon who has been working with her for the past year and had also accompanied her to the Ms. Aquaval competition.

"We tend to set a lot of double standards for people in Grenada, some will tell you that oh she is a carnival Queen and therefore. No, we have no contracts with these people" the GCC Chairperson stated.

She pointed out that when the young ladies are chosen as contestants the Queen Show Committee has nothing much to offer them in terms of benefits and incentives.

Woodroofe stated that it is not a case where the girls are given a contract with the Committee and so they are expected to abide by certain rules until their agreement expires.

She added that there is nothing between them and the contestants which said that they cannot marry or do certain things while they are Carnival Queen of Grenada.