Show­man­ship and pageantry filled the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah’s North Stand on Sat­ur­day night when the Tribe group of brands un­veiled their 2026 cos­tumes, blend­ing a time-ho­n­oured spec­ta­cle with bold, mod­ern Tri­ni flare.

This year’s event, Launch Land, fea­tured tra­di­tion­al amuse­ment park-style show­man­ship, mock carousels, par­lour tricks and for­tune tellers.

Or­gan­is­ers said it was one of the more well-at­tend­ed band launch­es for the Tribe brand in re­cent times, as hun­dreds of mas lovers ar­rived at the venue well be­fore the un­veil­ing of the cos­tumes just be­fore 10 pm.

As the lights dimmed, tra­di­tion­al carousel mu­sic blared from the speak­ers, set­ting an al­most omi­nous tone be­fore the nar­ra­tor, dressed in a cir­cus ring­mas­ter cos­tume, an­nounced the bands be­gin­ning with the Lost Tribe’s Is­land Car­ni­val.

He was joined by ac­ro­bats and fire-breathers, cap­ti­vat­ing spec­ta­tors who hud­dled near the stage front, their eyes and cell­phones fixed on the spec­ta­cle.

The slow pace of the cir­cus or­gan was re­placed by up-tem­po so­ca mu­sic, stir­ring the crowd in­to a fren­zy.

Every cos­tume fea­tured a de­sign el­e­ment from the cir­cus with a unique­ly Trinida­di­an twist.

Group cre­ative di­rec­tor for the Tribe brand Valmi­ki Ma­haraj said the idea for the Is­land Cir­cus was a way to pay homage to tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters in a fresh retelling that would en­gage au­di­ences.

Build­ing on the con­cept of tra­di­tion­al cir­cus per­form­ers be­ing per­ceived as “out­casts,” Ma­haraj said the char­ac­ters were reimag­ined+ find­ing ca­ma­raderie in each oth­er.

“It’s a play on the idea of the tra­di­tion­al cir­cus we know but made up of kin­folk of Trinida­di­an tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ters or leg­ends,” he ex­plained.

“The idea be­hind it plays on the fact that our tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ters have such rich back­sto­ries and in their own ways have been shunned in their own spaces to find kin­ship in each oth­er and see­ing that not on­ly from the sto­ries and his­to­ry books but see­ing it in the spaces on how I in­ter­act with them I find it so in­spir­ing.

“As a young mas­man in the space, some­body who be­lieves in pay­ing re­spect to where he has come from, but in the line of lay­ing the foun­da­tion for where we’re go­ing, each sec­tion or each act as we’re call­ing it this year is not a tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ter per se, but in­spired by the per­son­al­i­ties and sto­ry­lines and our de­sign­ers took on the chal­lenge and I’m so proud of what they have ac­com­plished.”

Asked if he felt there was any ad­di­tion­al pres­sure af­ter Lost Tribe won Band of the Year for 2025, Ma­haraj said while an­oth­er con­sec­u­tive win in Car­ni­val 2026 would be ap­pre­ci­at­ed, the cre­ative ex­pe­ri­ence and joy it brought is in it­self re­ward­ing.

“I look for­ward to pre­sent­ing a new pre­sen­ta­tion every sin­gle year ... in terms of win­ning, your lips to God’s ears, I’m go­ing with it, but apart from that for my mas­quer­aders, once they’re hap­py I’m hap­py.”

Pa­trons con­tin­ued to ap­plaud through­out the night as Tribe with their pre­sen­ta­tion of Maraye (Wa­ter) un­veiled cos­tumes fea­tur­ing flow­ing fab­rics and strong, earthy colours keep­ing in theme with na­ture and re­birth.

Mod­els for the Harts pre­sen­ta­tion, Bachan­nal in Bloom, and the Bliss mas band Uncaged al­so at­tract­ed ap­plause and cheers from the large crowd which con­tin­ued to grow through­out the evening.

While the stage was filled with pageantry and ex­cite­ment, back­stage de­sign­ers and as­sis­tants worked fever­ish­ly putting the fin­ish­ing touch­es on cos­tumes.

De­sign­er Shari Win­ches­ter said the time and ef­fort need­ed to make the show a suc­cess be­gan long be­fore Sat­ur­day night.

Mod­el Ma­iah Coop­er said the fun and ex­cite­ment were just part of the ap­peal of her cos­tume, The Tallest Man Alive, which pays homage to the tra­di­tion­al moko jumbie. She said the fo­cus on African folk­lore al­lowed her to re­claim her her­itage with style and flair.

“The small de­tails like the in­clu­sion of the cowrie shells on the cos­tume re­al­ly make the dif­fer­ence. The shells are a part of African cul­ture and used for pro­tec­tion and as an African girl my­self I just love the cos­tume.”

While the on-stage the­atrics were the main at­trac­tion, there was a fes­tive at­mos­phere through­out the venue as pa­trons so­cialised near the bars, the food court and the en­trance.