The National Junkanoo Committee (NJC) spoke with ZNS News on Tuesday about their execution of the 2025 Boxing Day Junkanoo Parade. They also foreshadowed new procedures to come at the New Year’s Day parade.
NJC Chairman, Andrew Pinder admitted that there were challenges with the Boxing Day parade and said the committee is working to mitigate them from happening during the New Year’s Parade.
Pinder also responded to rumours that the parade was penalty free. He said, “that was never agreed upon. The parade was also a penalty parade and I think that may have created some mischief.”
Parade Management Team Chairman, Douglas Hanna also spoke to problems experienced on Boxing Day. “There were some issues with regards to connectivity because the judges instruments went down several times. It had nothing to do with the software but the did not diminish the integrity of the judges,” Hanna said.
He assured that judges were trained and understood their jobs despite online claims to the contrary. He also addressed online photos showing judges sitting down and allegedly sleeping. “No groups are passing so there’s nothing to judge so they sit and that is their rest time. I did see some circulated photograph of a judge sitting down, that was the period when they had nothing to judge.”
According to the NJC Chairman the committee has met and changes will be implemented for the New Year’s Day parade. “If we’re gonna be successful at improving the parade it’s gonna have to start with change and there was some things that you may not see the importance now but when you sit and you really think about it, you know, it made sense,” Pinder said.
The New Year’s Day Parade is set to begin on January 1st at 2 a.m.
