Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Car­ni­val is of­ten de­scribed as a fes­ti­val for all and wheel­chair-bound Scott De­onar­ine, 20, proved this yes­ter­day as he danced and ma­noeu­vred in his mo­torised chair to Machel Mon­tano's Ad­van­tage. He's play­ing mas with Fire­works Pro­mo­tions in their 2011 pre­sen­ta­tion, Min­er­als of D Earth. De­onar­ine, of Oropouche, suf­fers from cere­bral pal­sy, but the en­er­getic young man said that did not stop him from en­joy­ing the Mer­ry Monarch's reign in San Fer­nan­do.

"This is my fourth year play­ing mas," he said. "I am glad for the cel­e­bra­tion." From Fan­cy In­di­ans to bead and biki­ni-clad, rev­ellers took over the streets of San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day af­ter­noon as the Mer­ry Monarch had his way in T&T's sec­ond city. Among the bands cross­ing the main judg­ing point was Ivan Kalicha­ran's Colours of Light with bright­ly coloured cos­tumes that cap­tured the hues of the rain­bow. Even a brief af­ter­noon driz­zle did not damp­en the spir­its of the rev­ellers. In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch Machel Mon­tano's Ad­van­tage and Groovy So­ca Monarch Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller's Wot­less were the most played in South as mas­quer­aders there en­joyed what's called the great­est show on Earth.