Thankfully,
the carnivals I remember bear no resemblance to those of today. And no, I’m not
referencing the festivities of the 60s and 70s (I’m not that old). I’m talking
about the carnivals of a few years ago. Take, for instance, the float parades.
Those were the carnivals where you didn’t need to be financed by a sponsor to
present a float in the parade; where friends, families, neighbours and
neighbourhoods/wards got together and combined ideas, talents and skills to
present a float that actually had some relevance, significance and meaning;
where it was all about pure unadulterated fun, made complete with a social
message.
Cut to the
numerous dances that were held all over the state – at the end of the day it
wasn’t about making many quick bucks to line personal pockets nor was it about
trying to shut down another event just so yours would fill up. It was about
coming together to provide an extremely entertaining evening where everyone
knew everyone else and people could come and go as they pleased, leaving (as
and when they did) with feet sore from dancing through the night, jaws and
stomachs aching from smiling and laughing too much and the mind filled with a
bucket load of great memories and the strains of a song sung during the course
of the evening.
Speaking of
songs, those were the carnivals that were packed to the brim with talent and
entertainment in the music department. At a time when pen drives, synth pads,
backing tracks and minus ones were a thing unheard of, talented musicians
relied on their individual memory of every chord, beat, progression and change
to get through the entire night while entertaining every single person in the
crowd. And the question of one band trying to outshine the other didn’t even
arise – one group mixed with the next, making for impromptu jam sessions and
pretty amazing renditions of popular tunes.
And last
but definitely not the least, what I remember most was, people actually made an
effort to dress the part. Costumes couldn’t be bought off the shelves in a
store and standard wigs weren’t so easily available that everyone looked like
co-inhabitants of the rainbow coloured Mohawk galaxy – they had to be made from
old clothes found at the back of one’s cupboard, bits and pieces from within
the house and a whole lot of creativity, patience, paper, paint and glue. From
cutting two holes in an old white sheet so that one could resemble Casper the
friendly ghost to getting mum’s help (just because one was too young and scared
to use scissors) to converting an old wicker basket into a tortoise shell to go
on one’s back and having fully matured, grown friends using an old wheelbarrow
as a pram, complete with a pretty large, talking baby, I believe I’ve pretty
much seen and done it all.
But will
this be in the future? Only time will tell. For now, one can only hope and
pray… wish you all a very hearty ‘Viva Carnival’.
