Joshua Seemu­n­gal

Se­nior Re­porter

joshua.seemu­n­gal@guardian.co.tt

The So­cadrome vi­brat­ed with mu­sic and hun­dreds of jump­ing feet yes­ter­day, as mas­quer­aders in an ec­sta­t­ic trance rev­elled in free­dom.

Mega bands Spir­it, Harts, Tribe and Bliss were among the bands to cross the stage to the de­light of their mas­quer­aders.

Many of the mas­quer­aders laud­ed Car­ni­val 2025 as the great­est ever.

“It was won­der­ful. I haven’t been on the So­cadrome stage for a long while and this time, it was re­al­ly, re­al­ly nice,” a Spir­it mas­quer­ad­er who on­ly gave her name as Ai­da said.

“I played every year for the past 20 years be­cause I love every­thing about mas. I love every­thing about Car­ni­val. I love the cul­ture. I am Car­ni­val. I am cul­ture.”

“Trinidad Car­ni­val is the best in the world, hands down. It was more than worth the mon­ey. A price­less ex­pe­ri­ence,” a mas­quer­ad­er in his mid-50s said while cross­ing the stage with Harts’ Gem­stone Dreams.

Beau­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty was on full dis­play at the So­cadrome—words of­ten as­so­ci­at­ed with for­mer Miss Uni­verse Wendy Fitzwilliam.

She de­scribed her ex­pe­ri­ence as fan­tas­tic, of­fer­ing par­tic­u­lar praise for the mu­si­cians.

“This year the mu­sic is amaz­ing. It’s been a long sea­son, so nor­mal­ly, by now, if it’s this long, you get a lit­tle tired of the mu­sic, but every day I learn a new song and it’s fan­tas­tic,” she said.

Fitzwilliam said while T&T’s Car­ni­val has made sig­nif­i­cant progress in ex­port­ing mas to the world, there is some rea­son to be wary.

“We are get­ting there...We are ex­per­i­ment­ing now, do­ing in­ter­est­ing things, that is seg­re­gat­ing the pop­u­la­tion more than bring­ing us to­geth­er. What makes Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val spe­cial, what has al­ways been, is that it lev­els the so­ci­ety. Every­one can par­tic­i­pate in every­thing,” she said.

“... Now, if you don’t be­long to this posse or that posse (it’s a prob­lem) and we have to stop that be­cause that makes us Rio. And that makes us oth­er car­ni­vals. And what makes us spe­cial is us, the peo­ple.”

Fitzwilliam wasn’t the on­ly beau­ty queen cross­ing the stage.

T&T’s Miss World rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ann-Marie Nan­ton, who led her Bliss sec­tion, said her ex­pe­ri­ence was in­cred­i­ble.

“I def­i­nite­ly think Car­ni­val is a plat­form to unite peo­ple. I think one of the things I love about Car­ni­val is that there are so many as­pects about it that you could en­joy. Of course, not every­body wants to come and put on pret­ty mas, some peo­ple are here for the steel­pan, some peo­ple are here for tra­di­tion­al mas or for the stick fight­ing. There are so many dif­fer­ent as­pects of Car­ni­val to en­joy and it brings all peo­ple to­geth­er,” she said.

Tourism Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell, who danced as he crossed with Bliss, said the fes­tiv­i­ties re­leased all the stress he had ac­cu­mu­lat­ed over the last two years.

He said it was the best Car­ni­val he’s ex­pe­ri­enced since as­sum­ing the po­si­tion as Min­is­ter of Tourism, Arts and Cul­ture, say­ing the coun­try is mov­ing clos­er to re­al­is­ing its full po­ten­tial dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tions.

“I think so (we are get­ting clos­er). I think with the Epic Car­ni­val Cruise and more ex­port ini­tia­tives, I think peo­ple are see­ing us tru­ly as the home of Car­ni­val and Car­ni­val in Trinidad and To­ba­go as the great­est show on earth,” he said.

Hart’s head of ad­min­is­tra­tion/cus­tomer ex­pe­ri­ence Nigel Ce­leste laud­ed the role that so­ca mu­sic and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice played this year.

“I think the re­sponse is tremen­dous this year be­cause the mu­sic is great. I think mu­sic plays a key part and al­though we are in a State of Emer­gency, peo­ple are feel­ing safer be­cause you are see­ing and feel­ing the po­lice pres­ence,” he said.

How­ev­er, when asked whether Car­ni­val has reached its full po­ten­tial yet, he said there is still a lot of room for growth.

“I think we have on­ly just touched the sur­face. I think we are go­ing to rev­o­lu­tionise the way Car­ni­val is seen to the world, and even as Caribbean peo­ple—how we por­tray Car­ni­val to the world,” Ce­leste said.