Southend carnival – August 2009…

Our very first carnival… and it was a great success. We had so much fun, everyone worked so hard and everyone loved it.

All prepared in our crisp whites and our freshly painted faces… (A new talent I have aquired:)) Mestre Biscuim gathered us all together to warm up. Without a doubt we were making a statement, and with our two beautiful sambistas we were perhaps pulling more attention our way than some of the other groups, and to add the final cherry to the cake our “full of energy hero” Christos was our very own Carmen Miranda, topped with his very own fruit salad.

We were placed right at the front….. AT THE FRONT!!! and it sure was the best place to be… with the thousands of people that lined the sea front in Southend we were one of the first things they heard and then seen. They danced in the streets on this night.

It was glorious evening, we couldn’t have wished for better weather, the stage was set and all was perfect. The drums started banging… and amazingly enough we managed to keep the drums banging for over an hour! The route is just over 2 miles, there was a break in the middle, but for us it was about 2 thirds of the way through the parade.

One of the highlights, without a doubt, was stopping under the pier and hearing the drums boucing around off of all sides. It was like being plugged into a giant natural speaker. Glorious… our drums were singing a treat.

Thankfully for us we didn’t have too many coins thrown at us, a long standing tradition… not a very nice one really, supposed to be thrown at the floor, but some kids took it upon themselves to have some target practice, and unfortunately for Sergio, he clocked one in the face.

When we did finally stop for the 15 minute firework display, we downed our instruments and let the roda commence. A real spectacle and the crowd really got involved and cheered as we threw ourselves around.

We were rushed to get our instruments back in order and off we went again for the final stretch. I couldn’t quite believe how many people where there! As we pictured the finishing line we gave it our last burst of energy.

We had been playing samba for over 2 hours. 2 HOURS!!! the girls had been dancing for over 2 hours, and Christos… I have never seen such a great leader of the parade! The man is AMAZING. We were all shattered and pleased to finally stop banging the drums, but we were well and truly satisfied with our performance and a great evening was had by all.

We wanted to bring a touch of music, culture and Brazil to Southend and that we did without a doubt, being praised by the local ministers and all of the officials on the day… and to top it off, I received a call from a good friend who happens to be the photographer for the Southend Echo and we have dominated 4 of the 6 pages dedicated to carnival! AMAZING!!! Roll on 2010..

I would personally like to thank all that contributed to the day and massively to you guys that came down from Leicester and London.