Coral King and Glenville Ash­by

It was re­al­ly a glimpse, a mere glimpse, in­to the world of T&T Car­ni­val, but it left New York­ers spell­bound. It was an evening that show­cased the depth and di­ver­si­ty of T&T cul­ture and the un­ques­tion­able aes­thet­ic ap­peal of its peo­ple. With the time­less beau­ty and charis­ma of Wendy Fitzwilliam and mod­els strut­ting and freeze fram­ing to ace per­former Machel Mon­tano, the twin-is­land state was well served dur­ing An­til­la Pro­duc­tions' T&T Car­ni­val show­case. The evening gripped pa­trons from the get-go.

With a sweep­ing view of the New Jer­sey sky­line from the Tribeca Rooftop in down­town Man­hat­tan, the jet set­ting par­ty-go­ers were greet­ed with rum and coke. They feast­ed on mi­ni dou­bles, salt­fish cakes and corn soup served with a gourmet twist. Cham­pagne and wine flowed, and for the non-al­co­holic drinkers, co­conut wa­ter so rem­i­nis­cent of roun'de Sa­van­nah was read­i­ly avail­able. Moko Jumbies, and a Dev­il mas­quer­ad­er, as­sum­ing a man­nequin-like pos­ture, added to that Tri­ni feel. Tas­sa drum­mers and pan mas­ter Dane Gul­ston pro­vid­ed high en­er­gy en­ter­tain­ment.

The event was host­ed by world renowned Ja­maican-Amer­i­can su­per­mod­el and ac­tor?Tyson Beck­ford?and T&T's 1998 Miss Uni­verse?Wendy Fitzwilliam. Mak­ing a grand en­trance down the stair­case, the for­mer beau­ty queen wore a black-and-white print jump­suit. Spice Car­ni­val show­cased Thai­land and Greece Front Line cos­tumes. To­bag­on­ian mod­el Sand­hurst, from the sec­ond sea­son of Tyson Beck­ford's re­al­i­ty show, Make Me a Su­per­mod­el, dis­played cos­tumes for 2010. Cos­tumes by Is­land Peo­ple were al­so fea­tured.

Machel Mon­tano, left, Squeeze, Si­mon Khan and Jonathan were some of celebri­ties present at An­til­ia's star-stud­ded event. Pho­tos: Roland Hyde

With Machel Mon­tano en­ter­tain­ing, the par­ty reached a crescen­do. Of the event that evening, Machel said, An­til­ia Pro­duc­tions "have been–sim­i­lar to what I try to do–putting Car­ni­val in the face of main­stream me­dia. We give qual­i­ty en­ter­tain­ment and that is im­por­tant." He added, "The cal­i­bre of en­ter­tain­ment tonight re­minds me of my per­for­mance at Madi­son Square Gar­den and Ra­dio City Mu­sic Hall."

Wendy praised the An­til­ia pro­duc­tion say­ing, "This was an amaz­ing event. The en­er­gy was right, Tyson was de­light­ful, the crowd was great and Machel was spec­tac­u­lar!" When asked about his ex­pe­ri­ence, Tyson said, "I can't put it in­to words. If this is any in­di­ca­tion of how Car­ni­val is, boy I am in for the time of my life. I am in a re­la­tion­ship right now, but I must say, Trinida­di­an women are very friend­ly and beau­ti­ful...who knows? Maybe I might mar­ry a Trinida­di­an." Na­dia Collins from The West In­di­an Amer­i­can Day Car­ni­val As­so­ci­a­tion said it best: "An in­tro­duc­tion to Car­ni­val can­not get any bet­ter than this!"