Camille Clarke

The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion's Kings and Queens Ju­nior pre­lim­i­nary com­pe­ti­tion went off with­out a hitch on Sun­day at Adam Smith Square in Wood­brook.Wood­brook res­i­dents had raised strong ob­jec­tions to the event claim­ing ex­ces­sive noise and con­ges­tion.The res­i­dents met with Port-of-Spain may­or Ray­mond Tim Kee last week Tues­day to com­plain.They are al­so plan­ning to stage a protest against four large Car­ni­val bands that plan to pa­rade through sev­er­al streets en route to the Jean Pierre Com­plex, Port-of-Spain, next Car­ni­val Tues­day.The com­plex will be trans­formed in­to "the So­cadrome," the venue for the coun­try's newest Car­ni­val Pa­rade of the Bands show­place.In an in­ter­view at Kid­dies' Car­ni­val on Sun­day, Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent David Lopez re­fused to com­ment on the res­i­dents' con­cerns.

Wood­brook res­i­dent, Jan­ice Au­dain, said she came to al­low her grand­son to ex­pe­ri­ence the Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions."I don't mind it, once it comes to Car­ni­val we need to ac­com­mo­date but not to the ex­treme. It is our fes­ti­val and if we don't want it some­one else will take it," she said.June Ram­per­sad, an­oth­er spec­ta­tor, said Car­ni­val was part of our cul­ture that need­ed sup­port."It is a park and where do they want it to hap­pen? It is not night time, its a chil­dren's and com­mu­ni­ty event. I lived in Wood­brook years and loud noise will hap­pen no mat­ter where you are. I am en­joy­ing it," she said.

A to­tal of 120 girls and 66 boys took part in the com­pe­ti­tion with a colour­ful and live­ly dis­play of the bands.Colour my cul­ture, D Mis­t­ique Gar­den, Africa, Africa, Won­ders of the Ocean, the Serengeti, Un­der the Sea and Raise your stan­dards were some of the bands that took part.They were judged in his­tor­i­cal, cre­ative trop­i­cal, fan­ta­sy, orig­i­nal and cre­ative cat­e­gories in var­i­ous age groups.Dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion, one of the moko jumbies par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Queens in­di­vid­ual com­pe­ti­tion fell while leav­ing the stage so to did one of the Kings as strong winds blew him off the stage.The judges lat­er an­nounced that this would not af­fect his score for the com­pe­ti­tion.