The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

The 53rd Independence celebrations began Thursday night with pageantry and fireworks. However, a fatal plane crash in North Andros jolted the nation on Friday, prompting organisers to turn Saturday’s planned Family Fun Day into a tribute for the ten victims, who included five members of Da Pond Band.

Thousands of Bahamians had packed Clifford Park on Thursday evening for the country’s 53rd Independence anniversary, filling the stone bleachers and spilling across the surrounding grounds as worship, culture, music and military tradition unfolded beneath the national colours.

Families began arriving before the scheduled 7pm start, many dressed in black, aquamarine and gold. By the cultural segment, spectators had crowded the stands and stretched towards the fort overlooking the park.

Prime Minister Philip Davis arrived around 7.30pm and greeted Governor General Dame Cynthia Pratt before joining senior Royal Bahamas Defence Force officers and other dignitaries.

A ceremonial flag crossed the field before the crowd rose for the national anthem.

The opening portion struck a solemn tone as religious leaders prayed for the country and remembered the five young Bahamians killed in the June 28 traffic crash at Shirley Street and Church Street.

The programme then shifted into a sweeping cultural showcase featuring gospel music, dance, poetry, visual art and performances by scores of Bahamian entertainers.

The Essence Band and the Anatol Rodgers High School Pop Band opened the cultural segment, while artist Stefan Davis and his protégé Teran Davis completed a live painting.

The Bahamas Creative and Performing Arts School performed.

The programme also honoured Bahamian athletes, including the CARIFTA Swim Team, track athletes Tonique Williams and Darvinique Dean, basketball players Dexter Cambridge and Franco Miller, and sloop sailors Efferd Kemp and Christian Wells.

The ceremony later turned to military tradition as Dame Cynthia inspected the parade contingent while the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Band performed.

Members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Royal Bahamas Defence Force, Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, Bahamas Customs and Excise Department and Department of Immigration marched in formation across Clifford Park to applause from the crowd.

Fireworks lit the sky to close the ceremony, but the celebration was soon eclipsed by news that a Flamingo Air aircraft had crashed in North Andros, killing all ten people aboard.

The disaster upended plans for the annual Family Fun Day at Clifford Park, prompting organisers and performers to recast the event as a tribute to those who died.

Producer Anthony Coakley said the Family Fun Day, now in its fourth year, was created during The Bahamas’ 50th Independence celebrations to provide a family-oriented daytime event after the official ceremonies and give local vendors another opportunity to earn income.

“We were expecting to have another really electric, fun-filled Bahamian-themed event featuring lots of our local artists from the rake-and-scrape part of the entertainment genre,” Mr Coakley told The Tribune.

He said the programme’s direction changed while surviving members of Da Pond Band were conducting a sound check.

“That’s when the drummer got the text message that said, ‘Hey, there’s been a plane crash, and we’re thinking that members of the band are on the plane,’” he said.

Members of the production team immediately began calling band members and people in Andros as they scrambled to verify the reports. Confirmation eventually came that the aircraft had crashed.

Mr Coakley said Minister of Culture Leslia Miller-Brice then contacted him and said the programme could not continue in its original form.

“She said, ‘Hey, listen, I think we’re gonna have to change directions with the show because you know we can’t be out there jump up, jump up, and these entertainers have just died,’” he said.

Mrs Miller-Brice urged organisers to honour the victims and later attended the tribute before travelling to the airport with other government officials to receive their remains.

Mr Coakley said organisers met the production team and performers to decide whether the event should proceed.

The performers unanimously agreed not to cancel. Instead, they volunteered to reshape their sets and transform the programme into a subdued tribute to their fallen colleagues.

“They said, ‘You know what? We want to do it as our tribute to our fallen colleagues, our friends. We will happily still go ahead, but as you’re suggesting, and as the minister had suggested, that we do it with more of a toned-down production and more solemn, and let’s make it a tribute,’” Mr Coakley said.

Artists incorporated gospel selections into their performances before the programme closed with a dedicated gospel segment coordinated by Bishop Denzel Rolle.

Mr Coakley described an emotional scene as Pastor Moxey called the crowd to prayer.

“Every person on that park stood there from the roughest-looking dude to grandma prayed,” he said.

He said an event conceived as a celebration ultimately became a display of national unity, grief and support for the victims’ families.

“The message became that we have to be one again, that we got to appreciate each other. We got to recognise that we do not take each other for granted and remember that we are one people.”