Belize Band Fest 2010

Yesterday was the much anticipated Band Fest held in Corozal this year.  This event is held annually changing locations every year –Corozal was the host for 2010 and everyone around town was excited.  The event was projected to bring in anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 additional people to the town.  The anticipated influx of people prompted bars around town to plan special events Friday and Saturday night so the town really was buzzing this weekend.

The competition was held on Saturday and started with a parade through town in the morning.  The parade route ended at the local football stadium which is located just a block behind Scotty’s so we were going to be in the middle of all the action.  We prepared the previous day by adding a few more portable menu items such as shrimp ceviche and pizza by the slice – we really had no idea what to expect.  By mid Saturday morning the streets around us were lined with cars awaiting the arrival of the parade and we did have a surge of people come through Scotty’s before the competition started.  Some came to buy food, some to buy beer and some to just use the restroom.  By noon everyone had basically cleared out of our place and was at the competition so mom and I decided to take that opportunity to go check it out with a friend of ours.

We walked down the road and it was packed – food booths were set up everywhere we turned before we had even made it through the gates.  I realized at that point that we probably wouldn’t be getting any more business that day at Scotty’s.  We got our tickets and made our way past the front gates – first stop was the beer tent.  We all got drinks and headed out to try to find a good view – it was going to be difficult because the place was packed.  We eventually found a surprisingly great spot along the fence and watched the show.

We were just in time to see the defending champs, Succotz Festival Band – they have won for the past four years but this year they had some stiff competition in Corozal Community College.  CCC was up next and they really put on a show – it was a great mix of favorites and an outstanding sound – they seemed to really blow the competition out of the water.  Check out a few short video clips here; http://www.youtube.com/user/belizedragonfly2010

After watching a couple more teams we took a walk around to find some food and take in the crowd.  The amount of food booths inside the grounds was staggering.  There were three lines of solid booths mostly serving bbq chicken with rice and beans.  As we were walking through the crowd we ran in to a bunch of friends throughout the day – the whole town was out for this event.  It was a great day of marching band music, competition, people watching, eating and drinking – of course I got sun burnt but it was all great fun and Corozal ended up upsetting the reigning champs to become bandfest 2010 Champions!  Great job Corozal Community College!