SAN­DRA L BLOOD

At a time when the world is cry­ing out for peace, love and uni­ty — and as T&T finds it­self un­com­fort­ably close to what in­ter­na­tion­al news has de­scribed as the threat of war — Hum­ming­bird Medal re­cip­i­ent and car­ni­val band­leader Vanes­sa Forde has turned to her own “peace troop”, Clas­six Pro­duc­tions (CP), to cre­ate joy, calm and har­mo­ny.

Forde said CP, found­ed in 2003, has proud­ly nur­tured cre­ativ­i­ty, cul­ture, joy and com­mu­ni­ty through the art of mas, serv­ing more than 230 young mas­quer­aders an­nu­al­ly.

“Our band is cel­e­brat­ed for its hand­craft­ed, award-win­ning cos­tumes and its deep com­mit­ment to in­clu­siv­i­ty. Each year, we spon­sor over 100 chil­dren from un­der­served com­mu­ni­ties and ful­ly fund the par­tic­i­pa­tion of the School for the Deaf, en­sur­ing that Car­ni­val re­mains a space where safe­ty is para­mount and every child be­longs,” Forde said.

“Our pre­sen­ta­tion for Car­ni­val 2026 is In A Time Of War. It is a vi­brant jour­ney through his­to­ry, ho­n­our­ing the courage, re­silience and spir­it of war­riors from around the world. The pre­sen­ta­tion spans eras and cul­tures — from Ro­man cen­tu­ri­ons and Aztec pro­tec­tors to Zu­lu fight­ers, Samu­rai de­fend­ers, and our own So­ca War­riors.

“In recog­nis­ing the re­al­i­ties of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s present mo­ment — and, by ex­ten­sion, ma­jor parts of the world — the band al­so ex­plores the idea of spir­i­tu­al war­fare, re­flect­ing the strength re­quired to nav­i­gate to­day’s so­cial cli­mate. The fu­ture of our na­tion, proud­ly rep­re­sent­ed by our youngest mas­quer­aders, will por­tray the Fu­tur­is­tic War­riors, sym­bol­is­ing hope, in­no­va­tion and pos­si­bil­i­ty,” Forde ex­plained.

“As we take the stage for Car­ni­val 2026, our mis­sion re­mains clear: to cre­ate joy, in­spire pride and make chil­dren hap­py — be­cause that is our mantra.”

Clas­six Pro­duc­tions be­gan com­pet­ing as a small band, lat­er strength­ened in­to the medi­um cat­e­go­ry, and since 2016 has con­sis­tent­ly main­tained its po­si­tion in the large band cat­e­go­ry. Across com­pe­ti­tions host­ed by the NC­BA, Down­town Car­ni­val, Red Cross and the NCC, the band has cap­tured 40 first-place ti­tles, in­clud­ing Band of the Year, and placed sec­ond on six oc­ca­sions.

These achieve­ments were earned un­der de­sign­ers Ran­dal Halfhide (2003–2009), Gre­go­ry Loreg­nard (2010), Shel­don Clemen­dore (2011), Do­minique Fields (2012), Robert Fred­er­ick (2013–2014), Ger­ard Barnes (2014–2015), and from 2016 to the present, Mike John­son. There was no Car­ni­val in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

In A Time Of War will be por­trayed in eight sec­tions by boys and girls rang­ing in age from one year to teenagers. The sec­tions are: Fu­tur­is­tic War­riors (mixed, ages 1–4), Zu­lu War­riors (girls, 5–7), Viking Raiders (boys, 5–7), Spir­i­tu­al War­fare (girls, 7–9), Ro­man Cen­tu­ri­ons (boys, 8–11), Samu­rai War­riors (girls, 9–12), So­ca War­riors (teenage girls), and Aztec Ea­gle War­riors (teenage boys).

Clas­six Pro­duc­tions Head­quar­ters:

1 Suf­folk Road, Bel­mont, Port of Spain

Reg­is­tra­tion email: Clas­six.Pro­duc­tions@gmail.com

/ keivan830@gmail.com

Phone (What­sApp-ready): (868) 759-8936