A product of Belmont, Wayne Berkeley first attracted national attention in 1965 when he designed the costume for the winner of the then Jaycee's Carnival Queen contest. From a very early age, he gravitated to drawing and painting, winning a children's Commonwealth-wide competition. While attending St Mary's College, like so many of T&T's young creative minds of his generation, he was influenced by the renowned artist MP Alladin. As a mas designer and bandleader, his focus was always to portray and represent the spirit of Carnival, while maintaining his originality. His were not of the "history book" type of portrayals as he persisted in the creation of fantasy costumes sticking to his philosophy that carnival costume designing is akin to poetry and storytelling and that Carnival was a street fete, albeit creative, beautiful, well organised, punctual and orderly.
Even though his foray into mas had started a lot earlier, it was in 1973 that as a large bandleader he burst onto the scene with the first of his nine winning Band of the Year productions Secrets of the Sky (along with Bobby Ammon). Imaginative sections such as Storm Clouds adorned this presentation. His other eight winning productions, from a total of 18 bands (listed below) spanning 1973 to 1997, were in 1974, 1980, then six consecutive victories from 1989 to 1994 surpassing George Bailey's beaver-trick from 1959-1963.
He placed second on five occasions and third on three. In 1998, he designed yet another winner-Amaranth–The Secret Garden-this time for band leader Earl Patterson.
Berkeley was by no means exclusively a Carnival designer as he was constantly in demand further afield (in addition to the demand for his Carnival designing services) as a theatrical and commercial designer, at home, in the Caribbean, in Europe and North America. In 2000, he suffered a stroke on his right side (his "writing/drawing" side) but resumed drawing with his left hand though on a much smaller scale. To honour and recognise his works the Heritage Library division of NALIS hosted a Carnival programme and exhibition titled "The Evolution of Costume Design: The Contribution of Wayne Berkeley 1965 to 2010." In 1974 he was awarded the Humming Bird Gold Medal for his contribution to the development of Carnival.
PRESENTATIONS
1973 - Secrets of the Sky - 1st (with Bobby Ammon)
1974 - Kaleidoscope - 1st
1975 - A La Carte - 2nd
1976 - National Heraldry - 2nd
1977 - Hawaii
1978 - All That Jazz - 3rd
1979 - The Ritual - 3rd
1980 - Genesis - 1st
1981 - Masquerade - 3rd
1989 - Hero Myth - 1st
1990 - Nineteen-Ninety - 1st
1991 - Swan Lake - 1st
1992 - Titanic - 1st
1993 - Strike Up the Band - 1st
1994 - Mirage - 1st
1995 - Origami - 2nd
1996 - Showboat - 2nd
1997 - Les Bijoux - 2nd