Amidst the fun and ex­cite­ment of yes­ter­day’s In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade, the oc­ca­sion was al­so an his­toric one as it marked the first pa­rade in­spec­tion for Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo and the first time the pro­ces­sion was com­mand­ed by a fe­male mil­i­tary of­fi­cer.

While 2022 was the first year the pa­rade was held since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic in T&T, sev­er­al spec­ta­tors and pa­rade of­fi­cials be­lieved the turnout was much big­ger this year.

From as ear­ly as 6 am, fam­i­lies sport­ing red, white and black cloth­ing, Trinida­di­an flags, hats and oth­er pa­tri­ot­ic-themed ac­ces­sories trekked to the Queen Park Sa­van­nah’s Grand Stand.

Columns of of­fi­cers from dif­fer­ent arms of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices were seen as­sem­bling on the east­ern end of the Sa­van­nah adding to the ex­cite­ment of pa­trons, who caught glimpses of the of­fi­cers be­fore the pa­rade be­gan.

Among the fam­i­lies were sev­er­al el­der­ly spec­ta­tors who said they looked for­ward to the pa­rade as it was a long-stand­ing tra­di­tion.

One woman who asked to be iden­ti­fied on­ly as Si­mone told Guardian Me­dia that while the pa­rade re­turned last year, she did not feel com­fort­able at­tend­ing in per­son be­cause of the preva­lence of COVID-19.

“I turned 68 years old last year and I lost a few friends be­cause of the pan­dem­ic.

“It al­ways try to come to the pa­rade, but be­cause of COVID and the mix­ing and min­gling in crowds, I didn’t want to come,” she said.

An­oth­er woman said she came to the pa­rade with her grand­chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren, not­ing that it was a tra­di­tion span­ning mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions for her fam­i­ly.

As some spec­ta­tors found their seats in the Grand Stand, a large crowd of peo­ple packed the un­cov­ered area on the west­ern edge of the Sa­van­nah as they ea­ger­ly await­ed the be­gin­ning of the pa­rade.

Some of the spec­ta­tors an­tic­i­pat­ing the high tem­per­a­tures walked with large-brimmed hats and um­brel­las.

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds ar­rived at 7.47 am, fol­lowed by the Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie and the Prime Min­is­ter short­ly af­ter.

In her first In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade in­spec­tion, Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo was greet­ed by loud ap­plause and cheers from spec­ta­tors.

The pa­rade was led by Cap­tain Kem­ba Han­nays of the Air Guard who ar­rived on horse­back.

Her in­tro­duc­tion as the first fe­male pa­rade com­man­der in lo­cal his­to­ry quick­ly drew rau­cous ap­plause from the crowd.

With march bands from the De­fence Force, Po­lice, Prison and Fire ser­vices belt­ing out new and old so­ca tunes, the crowd grooved to the beat even while seat­ed.

The ex­cite­ment was not con­fined to the ground, how­ev­er, as a fly-past demon­stra­tion from he­li­copters drew ex­cit­ed shouts from the spec­ta­tors.

But of­fi­cers were not the sole stars of the pa­rade as mem­bers of the Po­lice Ca­nine Unit and the Mount­ed Branch dis­played drills and train­ing along­side their hu­man han­dlers.

Even af­ter the pa­rade end­ed, the ex­cite­ment con­tin­ued on­to the streets of down­town and up­town Port-of-Spain, as fam­i­lies packed the pave­ments to catch a glimpse of pro­ces­sion.

On Tra­garete Road, a fire ser­vice ten­der used in the pa­rade thrilled spec­ta­tors when it sprayed wa­ter in the air, stir­ring spec­ta­tors, cre­at­ing a Car­ni­val-like at­mos­phere to the beat of the march­ing bands.

Kan­ga­loo prais­es coun­try’s gift­ed daugh­ters and sons

Af­ter the pa­rade was con­clud­ed, the Pres­i­dent, Prime Min­is­ter and oth­er se­nior of­fi­cials were es­cort­ed to the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my of the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) for the an­nu­al toast to the na­tion.

Dur­ing her re­marks, the Pres­i­dent paid homage to na­tion­al icons in­clud­ing artiste Denyse Plum­mer and au­thor Michael An­tho­ny who died last week.

She said their con­tri­bu­tions to T&T’s cul­ture were valu­able, adding that they were re­minders of the cre­ativ­i­ty this coun­try was known for.

“They are among the hun­dreds of gift­ed daugh­ters and sons who have by their ef­forts and their courage helped shape and de­fine who and what it means to be a cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“No oth­er peo­ple on Earth, show the spir­it, vi­tal­i­ty and hos­pi­tal­i­ty that we show and that com­bines to make us the unique and dis­tinc­tive peo­ple we are. This is the Trinidad and To­ba­go we cel­e­brate to­day 61 years on.

“This is the Trinidad and To­ba­go I have the sig­nal ho­n­our of toast­ing.

“The Trinidad and To­ba­go I in­vite us all to­day to recom­mit and in which to re­con­firm our undy­ing be­lief,” said the Pres­i­dent.