Antigua’s Carnival came to a belated close on Saturday night with Road March champion and Jumpy Soca Monarch Joel “Hard Knaxs” Lewis emerging among the biggest winners from the extended festival.

A broken promise means Antigua & Barbuda’s reigning Groovy Soca Monarch, Claudette ‘CP’ Peters, will not get the automatic bye she was expecting into the corresponding section for the International Soca Monarch Semi-Finals in Trinidad & Tobago on Sunday, February 13.

Antigua & Barbuda’s reigning Soca Monarch Tian Winter has suggested that one of the most effective ways of promoting the island’s Carnival is to support the efforts of local artistes who seek to become a force within the region and beyond.