George
Town, Grand Cayman: There’s a new band hitting the streets for
Batabano this year - Fenomenal. Fenomenal is the brain child of
Sharon Ebanks.

Sharon
is originally from the Brac, but she has called Grand Cayman home for
many years, although you can still find her kicking back, at every
opportunity, by the sea in the Brac!

Sharon’s
love of Carnival dates back to 1983 when she participated in the very
first Batabano, and fell in love with the music and the dance, she’s
loved Carnival ever since. She participated
in Batabano usually wearing queen costumes and has a shelf
full of awards for her costumes. She has also been a ‘co-producer’
of Mas Bands.

Between
1999 and 2006 she experienced Carnival on a much larger scale,
travelling to Trinidad to enjoy
steel band music, carnival fetes and parades.
This gave her the opportunity to meet and make contacts with
the many costume producers and the people who work hard behind the
scenes to put on the spectacle.

Sharon
said “I love carnival and I’d been talking for some time about
putting in a band for Batabano and this year I was spurred on by my
son Rhys and his wife Sasha. They both agreed, I was well known and
lots of people would come out and support the band.”

“My
vision is to bring back the early Batabano spirit and offer costumes
that will encourage people who used to take part to come back and
play Mas. The costumes are being designed in such
a way that you can show off as little or as much skin as you
feel comfortable with. We’ll offer for the ladies both bikini or
tankini tops as well as the option of shorts, tights or bikini
pants.”

“The
band will have four sections that will represent the Elements
- each of the sections represents a different element of nature. The
Caribbean Blue our beautiful Caribbean sea, Earth Angels to represent
the earth, Rise of the Phoenix representing fire and Wrath of the
Storm the wind. Each section, other than Earth
Angels, has male and female costumes.”

“I
will be setting up a Mas Camp at my home in April. The prototypes
are being made in Trinidad to ensure we have costumes in time for the
band launch but we will be producing costumes here. Shane James,
creator of the costumes will be traveling from Trinidad to oversee
production.”

“The
band launch is going to take place at Mango Tree on Friday,
March 8th starting at 5:30p.m. It’s going to be a fun night
with fabulous soca music and of course we’ll have models showcasing
the costumes.”

“You’ll
be able to register for the band on the night as well as by emailing
your details to fenomenalmasband@gmail.com
. “

Sharon
continued “For people who have never played Mas before, if you love
to dance you have to play Mas. The freedom of dancing in the street
is so much fun. It is also rewarding, seeing people on the side of
the road enjoying the sounds and sights of Batabano and a lot of them
shouting out to you and dancing on the sidewalks, joining in the
fun.”

“My
band will have beautiful costumes, friendly, fun masqueraders and
good music as well as refreshments. There is already quite a bit of
interest, simply by me telling people of my intention to put a band
on the road. I encourage you all to come out to the band launch and
see the costumes.

“Batabano
2019 is going to be quite a spectacle and I encourage you to come out
and be a part of this amazing event on
Saturday, May 4.”