To­bag­o­ni­ans were left dis­ap­point­ed by the lay­out of the is­land’s In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade yes­ter­day morn­ing.

De­spite en­dur­ing light show­ers and then swel­ter­ing heat from the sun, hun­dreds lined the pave­ment along the Claude Noel High­way in Scar­bor­ough, ea­ger to take in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s 61st In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions.

The pa­rade’s cer­e­mo­ny be­gan at 8.30 am, fol­low­ing the ar­rival of Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine and mem­bers of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly ex­ec­u­tive as well as oth­er of­fi­cials.

Spec­ta­tors of all ages, dressed in red, white, and black, held their smart­phones aloft, to cap­ture a glimpse of the co-or­di­nat­ed of­fi­cers as they made their way along the pa­rade route.

Com­pared to last year, few­er peo­ple were out with their fam­i­lies to watch of­fi­cials of the Air Guard, Fire Ser­vice, To­ba­go Po­lice Di­vi­sion, De­fence Force Steel Or­ches­tra, Prison Ser­vice, and Coast Guard march in the pro­ces­sion’s grand dis­play.

Those who were there told Guardian Me­dia they were dis­ap­point­ed.

“They didn’t need to have the pa­rade spread out, spread out so. I don’t know why they did it this way. Peo­ple just want to see the pa­rade and leave in this hot sun. Look how far apart the dif­fer­ent sec­tions (are),” Rosanne Ja­cob com­plained.

Ja­cob said this was the first time the pa­rade was done this way. Each sec­tion was be­tween five and eight min­utes apart from the oth­er.

As the pa­rade un­fold­ed, an­oth­er woman was heard voic­ing her dis­plea­sure at what she de­scribed as a seem­ing­ly stretched-out arrange­ment of the pro­ces­sion.

Many oth­ers were heard com­plain­ing and call­ing for a more tight­ly-knit and im­pact­ful pa­rade in 2024.

Nonethe­less, amidst the com­plaints, the chil­dren seemed to have en­joyed the event as many of them were spot­ted leap­ing mer­ri­ly in­to the streets as the bands played and marched.

The much-an­tic­i­pat­ed mo­ment ar­rived when a ten­der from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice sprayed cool­ing wa­ter in­to the crowd. Cheers erupt­ed, and um­brel­las start­ed to close in.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia dur­ing the pa­rade, Chief Sec­re­tary Au­gus­tine said it was a great day for To­ba­go. “It’s not as hot as the days of the re­hearsal. We saw for the first time the Civil­ian Con­ser­va­tion Corps that is part of the pa­rade and I think it is a glo­ri­ous day in To­ba­go as we cel­e­brate the 61st an­niver­sary of our in­de­pen­dence, notwith­stand­ing the chal­lenges as a coun­try at the mo­ment,” he said.

Though the dis­ap­point­ment of the pa­rade marred the ex­pe­ri­ence, es­pe­cial­ly for first-time on­look­ers, spec­ta­tors told Guardian Me­dia they found so­lace in en­joy­ing an­oth­er In­de­pen­dence pa­rade face-mask-free and with­out COVID-19 be­ing an ac­tive threat.