CHARLES KONG SOO

charles.kong­soo@guardian.co.tt

The Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val launch took place on Sat­ur­day on the Ch­agua­nas Main Road with steel­pan, mas­quer­aders, a Dame Lor­raine, sailors, moko jumbies, and spec­ta­tors danc­ing to so­ca and pul­sat­ing chut­ney per­for­mances from Nishard M, Nel Ram­dass, Cli­maxxx, Sexy Shazie.

Nishard M asked the crowd for ten sec­onds of si­lence for singer Anil Bheem who died on Sat­ur­day morn­ing, then he paid trib­ute to him with a med­ley of his Bol­ly­wood songs.

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed said that the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Coun­cil wants to en­sure that Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val is the safest in T&T as they want to build the brand.

Mo­hammed said Car­ni­val brings a lot of rev­enue and helps the lo­cal econ­o­my.

"This is the first time in Ch­agua­nas we're do­ing a launch like this where we bring it to the peo­ple in the Bor­ough. We want to make sure and cre­ate that hype and ex­cite­ment as we move to­wards the sea­son. As you can see, peo­ple are pret­ty much in­ter­est­ed in what we have in store. What we want to do is en­sure that Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val is a very safe Car­ni­val this year.

Leela Jattansingh, 72, left, dances with a bottle on her head while Nishard M performs on Saturday at the launch of Chaguanas Carnival.

SHASTRI BOODAN

"We have met with the po­lice, TTPS, Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice, mem­bers of RE­ACT (Ra­dio Emer­gency As­so­ci­at­ed Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Teams) and traf­fic war­dens as well."

He said when peo­ple feel safe and se­cure at a venue they will tend to flock to­wards it. Mo­hammed said the well-be­ing of pa­trons was be­ing tak­en in­to con­sid­er­a­tion.

Mo­hammed said some of the mea­sures on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day will be to lock down cer­tain streets and search all bags. For J'Ou­vert po­lice checks will be done for weapons, and the ban on glass bot­tles at all Car­ni­val events will be en­forced.

Chair­man of the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee Re­nee Bai­ley and Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion Re­gion­al Co­or­di­na­tor Ran­dolph Charles were at the launch.