Cori Baynes

Mas, so­ca and pan were in no short sup­ply as South­ern­ers came out in their num­bers for the an­nu­al Car­ni­val Tues­day pa­rade of the bands. From as ear­ly as 11 am, mas lovers lined the streets of San Fer­nan­do, ea­ger to see their favourite bands strut for the judges. The first band to cross the High Street judg­ing point, around 11.30 am, was Ivan Kallicha­ran's Out­ta D Rain­for­est, whose chore­o­graphed dance rou­tines were well re­ceived by the crowd.

RIGHT: Women in Ivan Kallicha­ran's Out­ta D Rain­for­est en­joy each oth­er's com­pa­ny.

The band, which copped the south Band of the Year ti­tle last year, and this year's south King of Car­ni­val, showed that it was out to re­tain its ti­tle as its mem­bers de­liv­ered an en­er­gy-high per­for­mance. The next band to face the judges was Na­tion Peo­ple with its pre­sen­ta­tion, Coun­cil of the Chief. Al­so in the line-up were Fire­works and Tri­ni Fever Crew with the theme, Mo­jave Mag­ic, and We Peo­ple In­ter­na­tion­al's A Mur­al by the Sea.

Bring­ing a dif­fer­ence to the mas, A Mur­al by the Sea, com­plete with moko jumbies, de­pict­ed nightlife at King's Wharf in the 1950s. Oth­er bands on the road in­clud­ed Li­onel Jages­sar and As­so­ciates' Sioux Na­tion, which fea­tured the 2010 Queen of Car­ni­val Rose­marie Ku­ru-Jages­sar, por­tray­ing Wa­ka-Nisha, The Sa­cred Wa­ter Bear­er.

Al­so mak­ing strong show­ings were the mas­quer­aders from the Owen C Hinds' mas camp and Friends of Ather­ly's by the Park, with Pow Wow. JW and Blaze's Palance showed it was well on its way to be­com­ing this year's Road March, as it was the tune of choice of al­most every com­pet­ing band. Show­cas­ing its tal­ent on the na­tion­al in­stru­ment, Trinidad Val­ley Harps was just one of many steel or­ches­tras to take to the streets with sweet pan sounds.