Min­is­ter of the Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Win­ston Pe­ters yes­ter­day de­scribed Car­ni­val band­leader Wayne Berke­ley, who died on Thurs­day, "a dear friend who in­tro­duced me to play­ing mas many, many years ago." In pay­ing trib­ute to "the most suc­cess­ful Car­ni­val de­sign­er in the na­tion's his­to­ry," Pe­ters said: "Few would dis­pute that Wayne was the most or­gan­ised and metic­u­lous mas band­leader Trinidad and To­ba­go has pro­duced." He said with Berke­ley's death there is an "ir­re­place­able void" in T&T'S cul­tur­al land­scape.

"The en­tire Car­ni­val com­mu­ni­ty and in­deed, all of Trinidad and To­ba­go must re­flect at this time, on the un­par­al­leled artis­tic con­tri­bu­tions of Berke­ley's lega­cy," the Min­is­ter said. "The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go recog­nis­es the con­tri­bu­tions of this il­lus­tri­ous son of our soil and in this re­gard, my min­istry will com­mu­ni­cate with the fam­i­ly of Mr Berke­ley, to of­fer as­sis­tance which they may re­quire. "Our prayers are with his loved ones as they cope with their loss."

Ken­ny De Sil­va: Chair­man of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion

Wayne will be sore­ly missed by the en­tire Car­ni­val fra­ter­ni­ty. He made an enor­mous con­tri­bu­tion to Car­ni­val, one that can­not be quan­ti­fied.

Cle­tus Berke­ley: Broth­er

Wayne's name was syn­ony­mous with Car­ni­val, he was un­doubt­ed­ly one of the biggest names in mas-mak­ing. He has been re­spon­si­ble for in­no­va­tions and main­tain­ing tra­di­tions in Car­ni­val mas.

Wayne was a metic­u­lous and me­thod­i­cal in­di­vid­ual who went the ex­tra mile to achieve per­fec­tion to the most minute de­tail. He held a rep­u­ta­tion for qual­i­ty and ef­fi­cien­cy, and Car­ni­val spec­ta­tors as well as mas­quer­aders were ab­solute­ly de­light­ed with his cre­ations.

Roy Cape: Mas­man and friend

Wayne Berke­ley's death is a great loss for T&T and our Car­ni­val cul­ture. He was a true pro­fes­sion­al and metic­u­lous about the qual­i­ty of his work. He was one of great­est de­sign­ers. Wayne Berke­ley will not be for­got­ten.

Earl Cros­by: DJ for Berke­ley's band

Peo­ple didn't just get a cos­tume, they got a piece of art. He was par­tic­u­lar, noth­ing was rushed. The world lost a great artist. T&T needs to pre­serve his leg­end.