RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As chil­dren chipped along the South­ern Main Road, Mara­bel­la, yes­ter­day in cos­tumes show­cas­ing the mag­nif­i­cence of Car­ni­val, chair­man of the Mara­bel­la Fes­ti­vals Coun­cil Al­lan Camp­bell ap­pealed to gun­men to put down their guns and let the chil­dren play.

The event fea­tured 14 bands com­pet­ing in large and medi­um cat­e­gories and more than 24 mas­quer­aders reg­is­tered as in­di­vid­ual en­trants.

Among those par­tic­i­pat­ing in the medi­um cat­e­go­ry in the band Carivog Kids was five-year-old Reign Nor­eiga who has been play­ing mas since she was two years old.

“She is a vet­er­an in the mas,” her grand­moth­er Va­lerie Nor­eiga said, ex­press­ing hope that some­day Reign will rep­re­sent T&T in the Miss Uni­verse Pageant.

Par­tic­i­pat­ing in the large band cat­e­go­ry was Bayshore Kids led by Jen­nifer Mar­ryshow with a por­tray­al, Clown­ing Around, and House of Jacqui’s Dat is a Tri­ni led by vet­er­an Jacque­line Koon How. Beach and As­so­ciates led by Mor­gana Beach pre­sent­ed Les Fetes Du Monde, while the band pro­duced by An­ra Bobb and Friends was called Trin­ba­go Fly­ing High, It’s a Cel­e­bra­tion.

In the medi­um band cat­e­go­ry, Ja­maal Faustin led his team Bad Sheep Meets Bad Kids, in a por­tray­al called BAA.

Mind­ful of the im­por­tance of safe­ty dur­ing the pan­dem­ic and dur­ing Car­ni­val Car­ol Hug­gins led her Is­land Vibes band with their pre­sen­ta­tion, Safe­ty First. The Eck­els Vil­lage AC School’s pre­sen­ta­tion Pas­sage to Chi­na was led by Su­san Har­riot.

As he of­fi­cial­ly opened the fes­tiv­i­ties, Camp­bell ex­pressed pride at the qual­i­ty of mas in the com­mu­ni­ty. He al­so said the Mara­bel­la peo­ple were peace­ful.

“We know the peo­ple of Mara­bel­la pre­vent any in­ci­dents from hap­pen­ing in Mara­bel­la. We al­ready have a lit­tle bad name but we must put down the guns for Kid­dies Car­ni­val and we must en­sure not a bot­tle is bro­ken. We don’t want to have bro­ken bot­tles for Car­ni­val,” he said.

Camp­bell ded­i­cat­ed the event to the mem­o­ry of Je­re­my Ja­groops­ingh who was heav­i­ly in­volved with Kid­dies Car­ni­val for many years.

How­ev­er, he took a jab at Mara­bel­la busi­ness own­ers for fail­ing to pro­vide fi­nan­cial sup­port to the Coun­cil to host the event.

“Oth­er peo­ple mak­ing mints of mon­ey in Mara­bel­la but refuse to con­tribute not even a $20. We have to look at peo­ple out­side Mara­bel­la who will make that sort of con­tri­bu­tion,” he said.