Sascha Wil­son

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.

 How­ev­er, while hun­dreds par­tic­i­pat­ed in at least 15 mod­ern bands, vet­er­an mas band D Blue Boys was the on­ly tra­di­tion­al band with less than ten play­ers.

 While there has been a de­cline in tra­di­tion­al mas in San Fer­nan­do for years, yes­ter­day was the first time in many years that on­ly one band show­cased tra­di­tion­al mas.

 Ad­mit­ting that the art form is dy­ing, San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo said, "The mod­ern J'Ou­vert has tak­en over com­plete­ly. There is a dwin­dling pres­ence of the tra­di­tion­al mas and per­sons who play that do not have the en­er­gy any­more. It seems to me the po­lit­i­cal sar­casm and satire that we ex­pect are dy­ing. We re­al­ly miss that. How­ev­er, young peo­ple are re­al­ly not hold­ing on to tra­di­tion­al mas nor are they un­der­stand­ing it."  

He said there are peo­ple who look for­ward to tra­di­tion­al mas and would have been left dis­ap­point­ed.

Re­grel­lo not­ed many mod­ern bands and the in­crease in play­ers for J'Ou­vert but lament­ed the de­cline in pret­ty mas on Car­ni­val Mon­day evening and on Tues­day.

Led by Valmi­ki "Val" Ram­s­ingh, D Blue Boys won the tra­di­tion­al mas cat­e­go­ry in San Fer­nan­do for more than 35 years, and yes­ter­day they did not dis­ap­point.

Bring­ing hu­mour to top con­tro­ver­sial so­cial and po­lit­i­cal is­sues in the coun­try, they took jabs at Collin Piper, Pres­i­dent-elect Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, Cro Cro and In­shan Ish­mael, Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty and the miss­ing pros­e­cu­tion file among oth­ers.

Revellers from the band D Image People during their portrayal of "A Crazy World" during J’Ouvert celebrations in San Fernando.

RISHI RAGOONATH

This year their pro­duc­tion "Ah Blue Be­cause" was ded­i­cat­ed to Ram­s­ingh's broth­er Dave Ram­s­ingh who re­cent­ly passed away. Singing from on top of at least three mu­sic trucks, so­ca di­va Nailah Black­man elicit­ed much ex­cite­ment and en­er­gy from the rev­ellers with her live per­for­mances of her hit "Come Home", one of the favourites in line for the Road March ti­tle. The first to cross the judg­ing point at South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts just af­ter 5 am was A&K Fash­ion Lab with their colour­ful pre­sen­ta­tion Free­dom.  

 Among the bands trans­form­ing the streets in­to a sea of ex­treme eu­pho­ria was Black Heart Pro­duc­tion with "Ah J'Ou­vert Na­tion", "Xes­ta­cy of Colourz" host­ed by Cul­ture in Paint, Im­age Peo­ple with "A Krazy World", Limerz Krew with "A Big Bang", B Man and Lord Street Fush­ion Fam­i­ly Events with "Share De Ef­fin Live", Poudre's "Di­a­ble Rouge" and Glam Jam "Jou­vert Band".  

The rev­el­ry be­gan around 2 am while J'Ou­vert end­ed at 11 am to al­low suf­fi­cient time to clean the streets in prepa­ra­tion for the Pa­rade of the Bands card­ed to kick off at 1 pm, fol­lowed by Mon­day night mas. 

Generation of Gold revellers during their portrayal of Red Light District during San Fernando J’Ouvert celebrations.

RISHI RAGOONATH