Candidates from 10 different districts will be vying for the Children Carnaval Queen Crown tonight.

A multitude of children, from babies to teens, donned in costumes, took part in the festive and colorful balloon parade through San Nicolas’ streets. 

As a result, officials adjusted the grand parade routes to accommodate the vast quantities of participants and spectators anticipated to attend the final events.

With island band D’Licious providing lively carnival music, the management and staff of Fundacion Cas Pa Communidad Arubano (FCCA) crowned their candidate for Diamond Jubilee Mrs. Carnival.

The competition, held at Aruba Entertainment Center, took place on Saturday where Aruban teens and children competed for the roadmarch and calypso titles.

Eleven contestants will be competing for the crown, in youth and adult categories, accompanied by special performances by local artists.

What started as a school project turned into Aruba’s Carnival bible. The Bacchanal is currently Aruba’s official magazine of Carnival, but was originally created by Friedrich van der Hans as his graduation thesis.

This year’s Aruba’s Children’s & Youth Calypso and Roadmarch contest will be bigger than last year’s competition. This year’s contest on Saturday January 18th will feature 14 participants in the children category and 12 participants in the youth category. The public is invited to show their support for all the participants.

The Prins and Panchos in the categories Child, Youth and Adult were elected during an evening filled with humoristic sketches where the contestant were trying to prove that they are worth becoming the next Prins and Pancho for Aruba’s Carnival 2014. The new Prins & Panchos will rule the events and parades and will present his Queen to the people on her election, and will accompany her where ever she appears.

Aruba was looking forward to the first Carnival parade, highlighting the start of Aruba’s Carnival season and the many parades, pageants and musical contests/events that will follow. With nearly 10,000 people in 10 carnival groups, the Torch Parade was a huge success and an exciting opening of Aruba’s 60th Carnival season.

TOB Carnival Group recently crowned two of their Carnival princesses during a special event. The TOB Carnival Queens will represent TOB during the Carnival Queen Elections.

Recently Aruba’s Police Department and Stichting Arubaanse Carnaval (SAC) announced that three Carnival parades will have some changes in their original route. Changes in the route are announced for the children’s parade in Oranjestad, the grand parade in San Nicolas and the grand parade in Oranjestad.