MIAMI – Miss Party People, Krystal Crichlow, a carnival baby who has been playing mas in Miami since she was two years old, was crowned Miss Miami Carnival Queen on Sunday at the 4th Annual Miss Miami Carnival Pageant.
Krystal also won the Desi Worrell Spirit of Carnival Award, Best Costume and the People’s Choice award. The Pageant’s first and second runners up were Miss China (Krystal DeGraff, who also won Miss Photogenic) and Miss Fun Generation (Junae Morales, who also won the Miss Congeniality award.) The competitors were judged on their introduction, talent, costume, evening wear and their responses to a question.
Krystal is a certified pharmacy technician and continues her studies to achieve a degree in pharmacy. Krystal’s parents, Michelle and Alan, own the popular “Tropical Feast” restaurant in North Miami (the “Smokey and Bunty” of Miami) which serves as Mas Camp to Party People, a mas band which won several Band of the Year titles in the early 90s and which has returned to Miami Carnival this year under the direction of bandleader Shaun D’Arcy.
With a record attendance loudly cheering their favorites, the contestants were serenaded by Steve Higgins, and attendees enjoyed performances by the NSM Dancers of Bollywood and “Soca T” (Tatyana Heyliger), a runner up in the 2008 Miami Junior Calypso Monarch competition who sang “Vote Obama”. The program was a tribute to Miami-Broward One Carnival Host Committee’s celebration of 25 years of Miami Carnival. Greeting arrivals in the lobby were banners displaying the names of all the bands who participated in Miami Carnival over the last 25 years, along with two individual costumes. Program Director Kurt Tyson created a video presentation which encompassed favorite scenes from the last 25 years, including the Junior Carnival, Kings, Queens and Individuals and of course the incomparable “Convention Center” party which entered the Miami Carnival Hall of Fame in 1993.
Pageant Queen Krystal Crichlow
Special tribute was paid to a Miami Carnival legend, with the creation of the Selman Lewis Cultural Award, presented to Wayne “Master Blaster” Luces, a DJ and bandleader who founded the original South Florida Carnival Bandleaders Association, and initially brought Mr. Lewis to Miami Carnival.
Executive Director Yolanda Henry, a devoted masquerader who will once again compete on October 11th at Bicentennial Park for the Queen of Carnival award she has won 4 times previously, expressed happiness at the union of the Miami and Broward Carnivals and said “there has been a spirit of harmony which is evident at every event, from the individual band launchings to the Carnival Launch last month, and I am happy that our Pageant was able to bring representatives from both former carnivals together. I expect Miami-Broward Carnival this year to be a huge success and I am looking forward to years of unity in the future.”
Taiesa Lashley, Krystal Degraff, Krystal Crichlow, Junae Morales, Felisha Perry, Lisette McCollin
Trinidad & Tobago’s Consul General, Laura-Marie West, offered her congratulations on a thoroughly enjoyable show, saying “I was pleased to have demonstrated the support of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, for the promotion of Caribbean cultures in the United States of America. I was even more pleased to have done so when I observed the level of participation and the professional quality of the show.”
Committee Members and Queen: Jasmine Lake, Dianne Benjamin, Kelly John, Krystal Crichlow, Yolanda Henry, Charlotte Alleyne, Kurt Tyson
