With soca music playing from the trucks, and Choy Aming's carnival flair, majorettes doing their upbeat stepping and of course the popular gombeys -- why would anyone want to miss the annual Bermuda Day Parade? The day is always filled with activity, and lots of colour with an array of floats packed with flowers and handmade objects.

This year, with the theme being `A Tribute to Tourism' spectators can expect some great things and some new additions.

Director of Community and Cultural Affairs Henry Douglas said the Bermuda Heritage Day Parade has 51 participants this year.

"For the first time we are getting a lot of community groups -- the Filipinos, Indians, Portuguese and the West Indians.

"They are participating this year with floats, dancing or walking. And for the first time we will have two international groups, the Frederick Douglass High School Marching Band and Drill Team and the Morris Sword/Dancers from London, Ontario,'' Mr. Douglas said.

He added: "They basically do a type of dance found in the Cotswold Hills of England. Some believe it has its origins in rural celebrations of fertility.

It was part of the country's entertainment in the 15th century.

"The Frederick Douglass team have 150 students between the ages of 14 and 18 and they come from Atlanta, Georgia.'' Mr. Douglas added that, after a long absence, the parade will be led by the Bermuda Regiment Band.

And in celebration of this year's parade theme "A Tribute to Tourism'' the parade marshal will be singer Hubert Smith.

"We chose him because we were looking for someone who contributes to tourism.

We found that he is one of the foremost ambassadors of tourism in Bermuda.'' Mr. Douglas also said for the first time the Department of Tourism will have a float in the parade. "We also have a few corporations taking part as well.

Shell is celebrating its 50th anniversary and will enter a float and Belco will also participate.

"All the floats will be depicting touristy replicas such as Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, and the beach scenes.'' Mr. Douglas said there will be a display of custom cars and bikes for the many avid automobile and motorcycle lovers One of the cars will be the two-headed car which is used for training at the Bermuda College.

"We will have a very large carnival section this year with Choy Aming and Caines. It has been reported that there will be 300 people participating in both sections.'' He added in addition to the parade, the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs will take over Harbour Night's entertainment section on May 21 and as a tribute to Tourism "we will have singers such as Hubert Smith, George Simons, Stan Seymour, Lloyd Simmons and others.

"There will also be a fashion show with the Queens of the carnival backed by the band Piece of the Rock. We want to get people in the spirit for the parade, which starts at 2 p.m. on Monday May 26.'' Mr. Douglas said the same route will be followed as last year which would be: starting at the corner of Par-La-Ville and Church Street, east on Church Street, south on Queen Street, east on Front Street, north on Court Street, and west on Church Street to Cedar Avenue and then to Bernard's Park.

Choy Aming promises that spectators can expect to see a bigger carnival section than last year. "This will be one of the biggest parades they have ever seen, and we still have room for some more people.

"We have some fabulous costumes again this year and there are more people taking part, more involvement,'' Mr. Aming said.

He added: "We have lots of bright colours and other fabulous things. "We have the music and the liveliness, and we are always at the back -- it's like the grand finale -- people join us and this year we have DJ Youngals and Bubbles playing.'' Mr. Aming said the first stage of putting the carnival section together begins in Trinidad. "That is where we make the costumes and we start in January. All the small ones are made there and then we bring them to Bermuda and assemble them. The bigger ones have to be made here because of the size of the structures, some of the costumes are 16-feet tall.'' He added: "At this point we are just decorating. There will be a preliminary Tourism theme for Parade Nelson Smith, organiser of the Shell Companies of Bermuda float, said that in celebration of the companies' 50th anniversary they wanted to show the pubic that "we care about them and the tourist of Bermuda and also our heritage.'' Mr. Smith added: "Our float will be keeping with the tourism theme and we plan on giving out hats, balloons and candy as the float is going by.

"It is a very large float, 29-feet long and 10-feet wide and 12-feet high, and it has taken roughly 500 hours and 16 dedicated people working on their evenings and weekends to get it together.

"We will have it finished the night before the parade when we put on the flowers. It will definitely be an eye opener and we are definitely looking forward to being in the parade this year.'' ALMOST READY -- Choy Aming's carnival costumes just need some finishing touches before they are marched down Front Street on Bermuda Day. Pictured (sitting) is Mrs. Clarise Bowden and Mrs. Conchita Aming.