- Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 2003, Toni-Shae James, centre, flanked by past queens, from left, Jacinth Hall-Tracey (1992), Gregor Fong (1999), Jacqueline Stultz 1986), and Jennifer Small (1995). The occasion was the launch of the 2004 festival Queen competition at the Christar Villas Hotel in St. Andrew in early May.
Alicia Roache, Staff Reporter
THE 'MISS Jamaica Festival Queen' Competition began its life in 1962 as a beauty pageant, the 'Miss Jamaica' competition. It succeeded in producing a number of international beauty queens, but has evolved into much more.
In 1963, only one year after its inception, the winner of the Miss Jamaica Competition, Carol Crawford, went on to win the Miss World title.
The following year, Miss Jamaica, Mitzie Constantine, placed third in the Miss World Competition.
Her achievement was repeated in 1973 by then Miss Jamaica winner, Patsy Yuen.
However, the organisers of the competition realised there was a need for greater emphasis to be placed on cultural awareness. Therefore, 13 years after its inception, the 'Miss Jamaica' title was dropped from the competition and a National Festival Queen Competition was instituted.
WOMEN TODAY
Today the slogan of the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen Competition 'Gentlewoman - peaceful and strong' suggests that the competition is anything but a beauty pageant.
Miss Jamaica Festival Queen 2003, Toni-Shae James, explains that the term encapsulates the qualities of many Jamaican women today.
"Quiet, genteel... women who have a quiet strength about them. Women have been taking a predominant role, not only in the home but in our society," she says.
Though there are some similarities to a typical beauty pageant, such as the emphasis on personal attributes articulateness, poise, grace and personality as well as the age limits (18 -25 years) the Festival Queen competition has grown into much more than a display of physical beauty.
There is no swimsuit segment. There is, however, a talent competition and community activities and cultural awareness are key determinants to a contestant's success.
Contestants are also judged on current, national and international affairs, women's affairs, performance and poise under pressure.
"We look for a total person, one who can represent us the best way," says Dorette Thaxter, co-ordinator of the Festival Queen Competition.
The competition is not discriminatory, says Thaxter. "We don't take their sizes," she says of the contestants.
To qualify as a representative, contestants should be living in the community which they will be representing at the finals for at least six months prior to the competition.
"In order to fulfil this (cultural) aspect, we must have someone who is culturally aware of the country and can articulate the cultural aspect of it and knows what it means to be a cultural ambassador," Thaxter says.
But, as the story goes, the Miss Jamaica World and Miss Jamaica Universe may be the cruel stepsisters of beauty pageants, easily stealing the spotlight and the attention of an adoring Prince 'John Public' from Cinderella, National Festival Queen.
Miss Festival Queen remains the unheralded beauty who does most of the 'housework', because while the respective beauty queens attend the 'balls' overseas where they compete with other 'princesses', sometimes to return home and do virtually nothing, the Festival Queen must complete community and culturally-based activities during her reign. Additionally, all parish queens must do the same.
In her role as Festival Queen, Ms. James has travelled to countries where there are large Jamaican communities, promoting the positive aspects of the country and exposing the achievements of its citizens.
In addition to her role as cultural ambassador, she has also undertaken several community-based projects, among them a campaign to raise funds for HIV/AIDS patients in St James.
COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Parish queens, too, have to get in on the action. Julie Malcolm, Miss Clarendon Festival Queen 2003, has instituted a dance club at the Denbigh High School in Clarendon.
The club, which consists of 20 students and two teachers, entered three dances in this year's Jamaica Cultural Development Commission Festival Dance Competition, all of which advanced to the regional finals.
Miss Manchester, Janet Ricketts, as part of her community project, is helping to raise funds for the Mandeville School of Hope for Children with Mental Retardation.
Miss St. Thomas, Jodian Scott, has also established dance groups, with a focus on ring games and Kumina, at the White Horses and Yallas Primary schools.
Undoubtedly, both the communities and the queens benefit from the Festival Queen competition. That realisation has attracted not only more contestants, but more sponsorship as well.
DEVELOPMENTAL WORKSHOPS
Before the competition begins, developmental workshops for potential contestants are carried out islandwide. Young women are exposed to aspects of personal development, including wardrobe planning, speech, diction, walk and poise, as well as the unearthing of hidden talents.
This year, according to Thaxter, over 500 persons participated in the workshops and about 200 young women islandwide entered the competition.
The development of the competition has also attracted or perhaps been facilitated by more sponsorship. The total cash and prizes have increased significantly since the start of the competitions.
Former queens, at the launch of the competition in May, reported that at one point the prize money for the winner amounted to a mere $500.
This year, the Festival Queen will get close to $2 million cash and prizes, including, for the first time, a car courtesy of Mack D's Auto.
The person adjudged most talented will also receive a scholarship from Capital and Credit Merchant Bank to the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.
"Sponsors have seen the need in what we are doing to develop our young women," Thaxter explains. "(They) are satisfied with what they have been getting for their money."
