Festivals Commission completes calypso judges’ workshop

The Festivals Commission has completed a calypso adjudication workshop, two
weekends before the start of the Calypso Monarch competition, one of the
highlights of Antigua Carnival 2023.
Held over the weekend, the workshop, facilitated by Sylvester ‘King Socrates’
Hodge of St. Kitts-Nevis, attracted approximately thirty judges, calypsonians,
producers, writers, and members of the general public.
A Festivals Commission spokesman said the workshop covered several critical
issues relating to the process of judging for the Calypso Monarch competition.
These include providing an understanding of what judges are looking for when
adjudicating the competition. It also went into some detail about the judging
criteria and the system of judging and covered areas such as stage performances, as
well as the rules and the responsibilities of the judges.
The spokesman said the workshop was a highly interactive affair, as participants
used the opportunities to take a deep dive into several areas of the process of
judging.
The workshop forms part of the Commission’s desire to provide both the members
of the judging panels and the artists and their producers a forum where they can
exchange ideas and concepts in a non-combative manner.
It also helps to provide a pool of trained judges and to contribute to the overall
development of the calypso art form.
King Socrates, a former calypso king for St. Kitts-Nevis, performed at one of the
calypso tents, where he was able to demonstrate to the calypsonians present and
those in attendance some of what he explained at the workshop.