KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Large Band of the Year, The Lost TRIBE, has un­veiled a new Free Roam­ing Sec­tion fea­tur­ing sailor mas as part of its 2026 pre­sen­ta­tion, Is­land Cir­cus.

The sailor cos­tume was re­vealed dur­ing the band’s show­room open­ing on Ju­ly 11 at Al­ber­to Street, Wood­brook. The event was at­tend­ed by Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Clyde El­der, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Ter­tiary Ed­u­ca­tion and Skills Train­ing Hansen Nar­i­nesingh, and Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Shiv­an­na Sam.

The Lost TRIBE had ear­li­er re­vealed eight sec­tions dur­ing the TRIBE Group’s “Launch Land” event at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Ju­ly 5.

Band­leader Valmi­ki Ma­haraj said two ad­di­tion­al groups are part of the 2026 of­fer­ing.

“The Lost TRIBE will be rein­tro­duc­ing The Lost Moko sec­tion,” Ma­haraj ex­plained. “It’s open to peo­ple who come and learn with Jaiso, who teach­es at our mas camp. They can play mas on the road with us on stilts.”

He added: “We al­so have the Free Roam­ing Sec­tion, which is the sailor sec­tion. There are mas­quer­aders who do not like to be con­fined to one sec­tion — they like to run up and down. So we de­signed a sailor cos­tume, which we pre­sent­ed at the show­room open­ing, for those mas­quer­aders.”

Ma­haraj not­ed that for 2026, The Lost TRIBE aims not on­ly to cel­e­brate mas but al­so to tell a com­pelling sto­ry.

“The theme is very close to me,” he said. “Over the past year, through my work with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion, I’ve had con­ver­sa­tions with var­i­ous groups and per­form­ers. From these dis­cus­sions, I’ve sensed a vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty about how these groups feel re­gard­ing their place in Car­ni­val.

“Even though they are the core of Car­ni­val, some­times they feel they’re not cen­tre stage. With this theme, I want­ed to cre­ate some­thing that po­et­i­cal­ly and ar­tis­ti­cal­ly places tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ters back at the cen­tre and fore­front of our mas. The sto­ry­line and nar­ra­tive are in­spired by them, ho­n­ours them, and presents them in a new way.”

The sto­ry­line ex­plores the jux­ta­po­si­tion be­tween tra­di­tion­al mas and the con­cept of a cir­cus.

“The con­cept of a cir­cus is that you have dif­fer­ent char­ac­ters who come from var­i­ous walks of life,” Ma­haraj said. “It draws par­al­lels with our tra­di­tion­al mas — a liv­ing, breath­ing com­mu­ni­ty of leg­ends. And at the helm is none oth­er than the fierce and flam­boy­ant Mid­night Rob­ber: our ring­leader, sto­ry­teller, and keep­er of truth and myth.”

The sec­tions in Is­land Cir­cus in­clude:

Carousel (Caro Sell) of Tales, de­signed by Pe­ter Elias & Jeneile Mc­Carthy

Night Leader, de­signed by JP Richard­son

Ring of Fire, de­signed by Shan­delle Loreg­nard

Tallest Man Alive, de­signed by Shari Win­ches­ter

Mys­tique, de­signed by Shawn Dhan­raj

Drag­on Dance, de­signed by At­i­ba Bor­de

The Or­a­cle, de­signed by Solange Govia

D.O.L.L (Daugh­ter of Lust & Lies), de­signed by Naas Mo­hammed