Ian "Bun­ji Gar­lin" Al­varez's "Hard Fete" was out front yes­ter­day as the lead­ing song for this year's Road March, but faced stiff com­pe­ti­tion from Nailah Black­man and Gamal "Skin­ny Fab­u­lous" Doyle's "Come Home" at judg­ing points in Port-of-Spain.

Sev­er­al of the big bands stayed away from the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah on Car­ni­val Mon­day, but those who crossed the stage ex­pressed ex­u­ber­ance over the re­turn of Car­ni­val af­ter the two-year hia­tus caused by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

The safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty op­er­a­tions put in place for the Moth­er of all Car­ni­vals have been suc­cess­ful in pre­serv­ing law and or­der dur­ing yes­ter­day’s J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions which marked the of­fi­cial start of the Car­ni­val 2023 street pa­rade.

Pow­der, wa­ter, paint, mud, foam, mu­sic, and J'Ou­vert-hun­gry rev­ellers. All these in­gre­di­ents came to­geth­er to pro­duce what was de­scribed as a bumper J'Ou­vert in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day.

We Dut­ty Hush Naughty and Nice, a pre­sen­ta­tion of Em­bling O’Gar­ro is the 2023 Ch­agua­nas J’Ou­vert band of the Year. The band al­so won the Large Band of the Year ti­tle. Plac­ing sec­ond in the Large Band cat­e­go­ry was Colours Erupt, a pre­sen­ta­tion of La Pen­ca En­ter­tain­ment and I Can­dy’s Jam 2023 placed third. The Small Band cat­e­go­ry was won by The Es­cape De­lad­ed a pre­sen­ta­tion of Red Army J’Ou­vert. In sec­ond place was Wet is Wet, a pre­sen­ta­tion of DJ Voom Voom and third, It Call­ing Me, a pre­sen­ta­tion of Re­hab J’Ou­vert.

Rev­ellers and spec­ta­tors turned out in large num­bers flood­ing the main street in San­gre Grande for J’Ou­vert. But be­fore they were al­lowed to en­ter the main area to en­joy the rev­el­ry, they had to pass through se­cu­ri­ty checks set up by of­fi­cers of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice who were out in full force.

The low spec­ta­tor turnout to see J'Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions in Port-of-Spain was seem­ing­ly mir­rored by a sim­i­lar de­cline in the num­ber of com­peti­tors in this year’s Old Mas Com­pe­ti­tion.

Even though Car­ni­val 2023 has been dubbed the Moth­er of all Car­ni­vals, yes­ter­day’s open­ing of the two-day rev­el­ry failed to at­tract the usu­al crowd of spec­ta­tors that of­ten line the streets, anx­ious­ly await­ing the of­fi­cial 4 am start of J’Ou­vert.

 Jacqui Koon How’s Dat is a Tri­ni has copped the Kid­dies Band of the Year ti­tle for Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val 2023.

Ray­mond Mark and Priya Na­gas­sar eclipsed nine com­peti­tors in each com­pe­ti­tion to cop the top prizes at the end of the Di­manche Gras show at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, a short while ago.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is urg­ing cit­i­zens and vis­i­tors to have a safe Car­ni­val.

Machel Mon­tano and the One Show team is­sued a state­ment to the pub­lic this af­ter­noon, apol­o­gis­ing to pa­trons of the show who ex­pe­ri­enced var­i­ous chal­lenges get­ting in and en­joy­ing the show.