The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) will be taking the opening and closing jump-ups for Carnival 2011 "to the districts".
In an effort to "shake things up a little", the SCDF has announced that the opening jumpup on April 25, which is also the official opening of Carnival and Carnival Village, will start in South Reward at the Milton Peters College and the closing jump-up on May 3 will start at Madame Estate.
"We just wanted to do things a little different, shake things up a bit," President of the SCDF Stuart Johnson said. He explained that all bands will gather in the area of MPC to kick off the jump-up at 8:00pm.
The bands and revelers will then move straight down L.B. Scott Road, the to Grand Marche round-about, down Bush Road, over the Prins Bernard bridge, up Walter Nisbeth Road (Pondfill) and finally come to end outside of Carnival Village. "So we’ll be bringing South Reward, St. Peters, Saunders, St. John’s, all of those districts to the Village with us. When you hear the trucks passing, come out and embrace the Carnival spirit," Johnson said.
The closing jump-up will depart Madame Estate in the area of ITC. It is not the first time a jump-up has started from Estate. The route was actually the official starting points for many jump-ups in the past. The jump-up will make its way down Illidge Road, past the round-about at Eddy’s Auto Supply, go up Illidge Road (Sunny Food), take a left at the Prins Bernard Bridge intersection onto the Walter Nisbeth Road (Pondfill) and make its way to Carnival Village.
"We have some additional surprised relating to these two jump-ups as well. We want to start Carnival with excitement and anticipation and we want to end it on a good note. We are very pleased that the Police Department has given the green light for the two routes and look forward to a fun time," Johnson said.
The 2011 Carnival season will feature five jump-ups. The first, the Unity Jump-Up from the French to the Dutch side, will be held on March 19, the second will be the around town Fete to Fitness Jump-Up on March 26, the third is the opening jump-up, the fourth is Jouvert Morning Jump-Up on April 29 and the last will be the closing.