"Absolutely no racist intent whatsoever"

Tuesday 25 July 2023

The organisers of the Harbour Carnival have defended the team which entered the Man Powered Flight dressed as The A-Team, including one in blackface as B.A. Baracus.

Joe Oliver - on behalf of the Harbour Carnival Committee - told Express that he had been "made aware of a Facebook post that someone was offended that someone had dressed up as Mr T, though we understand that this comment has now been deleted".

Mr Oliver has confirmed that despite the concerns raised through the Facebook post - which was still live on the Guernsey People Have Your Say page this morning - there haven't been any complaints to the Harbour Carnival organisers about the choice of costume.

Guernsey Police also told Express that: "At this time we’ve not had any complaint regarding this matter."

The A Team costumes featured three people in masks as the white characters Murdoch, Face and Hannibal, while the person dressed as B.A. Baracus was in brown face paints and was wearing a brown bodysuit.

Mr Oliver said the query from Express is the only one it has received about the costumes.

"We never responded to the post as it wasn't directed at us, we never had any complaints on the night, or since and actually your publication is the only one who has asked us about it.

"Our media team interviewed the lady on the night, as her team were depicting the A-Team and a very good job they did too.

"There was absolutely no racist intent whatsoever and I don't believe that anyone could really think that it was anything other than a good natured representation for an event that raises a great deal of money for good causes.

"The lady depicted a fictional tv character (that isn't a racist character) rather than a general racial slur. As far as we are concerned her team had just as good a theme as the minions who actually won the best dressed team in the end. We don't have any particular criteria for fancy dress for any of the team events, we expect that the entrants would use their judgment just as they would on a night out or a fancy dress party."

The Harbour Carnival is an annual event held on a high tide in St Peter Port, raising money for and organised by the Round Table. 

Mr Oliver said the event was well received, well attended and generally passed off without incident - except for an alleged sexual assault which Guernsey Police dealt with and is now being handled by the courts.

"Overall the event, apart from one incident that is being dealt with by the police, was extremely well attended and very good natured with everyone having a good time and raising money for charity, which is what carnival is all about."

The Harbour Carnival's main beneficiary this year is the charity Safer. 

"We don't know the totals of what was raised yet as we are all volunteers with busy lives so it does take a while to count all the donations and send out invoices, as well as paying invoices that come in for our suppliers," said Mr Oliver.

"Once that is all complete we will look at the tide tables and work out a date for next year's event, which we hope will be equally as well attended and with more tug of war and Man powered flight entrants.

"The Ladies dinghy race is always well supported and the girls did a fabulous job this year with some really excellent costumes. The man powered flight also had some great themes and costumes so we were really pleased that everyone made such a good effort.

"We have a film of the event coming out in the next few weeks so people should follow us on Facebook and keep updated with next years events and totals raised for Safer."

Mr Oliver wished to thank a number of businesses and individuals for their support in ensuring the Harbour Carnival was a success this year, including all of the teams for "making it a fabulous spectacle and last but not least to the Guernsey public for coming down, putting their hands in their pockets, supporting the teams and generally being excellent".

Access Scaffolding provided the Man Powered Flight platform, Fairfield Wealth sponsored the Tug of War, and numerous companies purchased a duck for the duck race.

Guernsey Harbours, Police, Traffic and Highways Services and the Health and Safety Executive all helped in various ways.

The winners of the various events were: 

Best Dressed Duck (independently chosen - by the police officers on duty): Offshore Commercial

Overall Duck Race (independently picked by the lifeguard on duty): Offshore Commercial

Ladies Dinghy Race: Avenue Avengers

Ladies Dinghy Race Best Costume: Guernsey Prison

Tug of War: Harbour Lights (the Guernsey prison gave them a good run for their money so hopefully a rematch next year!)

Man Powered Flight Furthest Distance: Henry Simpson from MUG

Man Powered Flight Best Costume: The Minions 

READ MORE...

FOCUS: The history of blackface and how it came to Guernsey's Harbour Carnival