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UWI TODAY – SUNDAY 16 DECEMBER, 2018
70
th
ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE
National competitions
for traditional carnival characters
notwithstanding, no one site brings such a comprehensive
collection together than the Old Yard hosted by The UWI’s
Department of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA) every
year. And it isn’t just robber talk from some mocking
pretender to make that claim.
The Old Yard, which began life as Viey La Cou, took
place on February 3 at its regular venue: the DCFA’s Gayelle
on Agostini Street in St. Augustine.
The care and attention to detail that goes into creating
this gayelle is heart-warming. The yard is remade with an
architectural style reminiscent of times gone by, and the
characters come out flexing exquisite detail as they bring
to life the figures from the past and demonstrate the antics
and traits for which they are known.
Dames, devils, jab jabs, baby dolls, gorillas, imps,
medieval figures, donkeys, pierrots, minstrels, midnight
robbers and ghostly figures were all present.
Like a heritage fair of sorts, onlookers can stroll, sit,
feast, and play games whilemingling with themasqueraders,
and for the children it is always an enormous treat, while
being an unnoticed history lesson.
Photographer
Aneel Karim
was at the gayelle and came
back with so many spectacular shots that it was difficult
selecting just a few for these pages, so why not visit us online
at
Flickr
and check out some of the others?
TheTrue Collection
of Traditional Mas
THE OLDYARD
– ISSUE ARCHIVE FEBRUARY 2013
