The management of the Source Blue Devils regrets to announce that the J’Ouvert troupe will not be taking the road for the 2008 Carnival celebrations.

The decision was indeed an extremely tough one to make having gone against the wishes of the many fans who look forward to playing J’Ouvert with Blue Devils every year.

But it is in the interest of these same fans that Blue Devils was forced to make this difficult decision.

Blue Devils in a mere six years grew to proportions that were unimaginable when organisers first took the idea to the streets as a mere experiment.

Each year, the numbers grew almost exponentially, and while this was indeed a true measure of its success, it presented some worrying circumstances.

Because of the popularity of the band, many others who wanted to be a part of the fun, simply joined anywhere on the J’Ouvert route, sometimes ruining the enjoyment of our many paying patrons.

Despite the valiant efforts of the police last year and paid security personnel, the numbers in the troupe way exceeded any measure the troupe organisers had put in place.

Luckily for the Blue Devils gang, its record of an incident free J’Ouvert every year remained intact at the end of last year’s activity. Blue Devils further stated it was never satisfied year after year with the repeated assurances by organizers of J’Ouvert that security provisions would be adequate.

“Our greatest worry last year was going down the road and seeing one of our members involved in some incident after they would have paid their money, especially since our demographic is made up of particularly young women, and to a lesser extent, young men,” Chalita Rose, a member of Blue Devils management stated.

It is against this background that Blue Devils decided to use this year to do some introspection, pausing for 2008 to take a step back and assess our achievements and how we can make the product better if and when we return.

“We made J’Ouvert enjoyable for everyone. We are proud of that. Our product is a quality one and so we felt we risked loosing it all by playing this year,” Rose stated.

Instead, Blue Devils will be concentrating fully on its Red Eye Fete, scheduled for 12 July at Millers by the Sea. Like Blue Devils, Red Eye, the Breakfast Fete, has experienced considerable growth and has taken on a life of its own by providing the grandest stage for the top Antiguan bands to perform.

As the time gets closer, organisers will be sure to keep fans informed about plans for the fete, expected to be bigger and better this year.