Small Island Unity (S.I.U.) members during the 2019 St. Maarten Carnival with at right S.I.U. Director Kyle “DJ SPY” Brown.
ROTTERDAM--Small Island Unity (“S.I.U.”) will be participating in St. Maarten’s Carnival, for the second year. The group of mostly young Windward Islanders residing in the Netherlands, will join other local groups.
S.I.U., together with Le Beau Reizen, the travel agency of St. Maartener Marlon Beauperthuy, has put together a package that will take 35 to 50 persons to St. Maarten from April 21 to May 4.
S.I.U. participated for the first time in St. Maarten Carnival in 2019, during the 50th anniversary. Just like last year, the S.I.U. revellers will join local groups. S.I.U. has been participating in the Rotterdam Summer Carnival with its own group since 2012, and also takes part in London’s Notting Hill Carnival.
The group chose to skip this year’s Rotterdam Summer Carnival because of logistical reasons on the part of Carnival’s organiser, Rotterdam Unlimited. And so, S.I.U. this year will go to Notting Hill Carnival in England and to St. Maarten Carnival.
S.I.U. will be present for Jouvert Morning on April 27, and will be part of the Nothing But Alcohol (NBA) group. “We are very much looking forward to this year’s Carnival in St. Maarten,” said S.I.U. Director Kyle “DJ SPY” Brown. “Everybody is looking forward to the parades, especially the second lap. Last year, we all loved the vibe, the laid-back sense. Everyone really enjoyed the experience,” he said.
During the week, outside the Carnival parades, S.I.U. has organised a schedule with fun events. The group will do a pub village crawl, going from booth to booth in Carnival Village to sample food and drinks. Also, there will be a beach day, as well as an island tour, a zip-line event and other fun things to do as a group.
Some of the people in the S.I.U. group don’t hail from St. Maarten or the Windward Islands, so it will be nice to show them the island, said Brown. The S.I.U. group will also have people from Latvia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
S.I.U. is in the process of establishing a branch in St. Maarten to organise Carnival and Carnival-related events. Three committee members have already started the work, headed by Glenda York, who has been acting as S.I.U.’s marketing manager for several years.
