Band­lead­ers praised the Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee for its de­ci­sion to erect a stage for this year’s cel­e­bra­tions.

This an­nounce­ment came dur­ing J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Flavio Goodrich, the leader of Red Army J’Ou­vert, stopped in the mid­dle of his band’s pre­sen­ta­tion to thank CCC chair­man Melis­sa Jadoo­nanan and the com­mit­tee for bring­ing back the stage af­ter a decade-long drought.

Goodrich said the stage at Ram­saran Street had el­e­vat­ed cel­e­bra­tion to a new lev­el, putting it on par with oth­er na­tion­al events. He said the stage al­so al­lowed for the in­cor­po­ra­tion of py­rotech­nics for the band’s per­for­mance. Jadoo­nanan, who is al­so the Ch­agua­nas Deputy May­or, said the event was in­ci­dent-free and was held un­der the watch­ful eye of of­fi­cers from the Ch­agua­nas Po­lice Sta­tion.

She said 200 po­lice of­fi­cers, along with mem­bers of the Army and Mu­nic­i­pal po­lice, pa­trolled the streets. The first band to cross the stage was Colour My Fan­ta­sy with their pre­sen­ta­tion of Old Is Gold, fol­lowed by J’Ou­vert Junkie’s Ra­ma­jay, J’Ou­vert Jumbies, a pre­sen­ta­tion of Nan­cy’s Bar, then I Can­dy J’Ou­vert’s Jab the Spir­it of J’Ou­vert, which was the largest band to cross the big stage. Po­lice said the crowd of spec­ta­tors reached around 6,000 peo­ple at its peak yes­ter­day. —Shas­tri Boodan