In­nis Fran­cis

Fre­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Kalicha­ran Mas has tak­en the Large Band cat­e­go­ry and Band of the Year ti­tle for the 30th time in San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val.

How­ev­er, fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of re­sults at the May­or’s Cham­bers at City Hall yes­ter­day, band­leader Ayana Kalicha­ran-Ma­hase said it was bit­ter­sweet vic­to­ry ex­pe­ri­ence, since the band was the on large band cat­e­go­ry on Mon­day and Tues­day.

Kalicha­ran-Ma­hase said there is po­ten­tial for the Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do to progress if on­ly all stake­hold­ers can come to­geth­er and dis­cuss growth.

“We are hap­py this is our 30th ti­tle and we are go­ing to try our very best to im­prove San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val, and see if it is we can work our way with stake­hold­ers to grow San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val …,” she said.

“We hope to grow San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val, and with health and strength and God and safe­ty, but then San Fer­nan­di­ans need to give San Fer­nan­do a chance, they grav­i­tat­ing to Port-of-Spain, and we can un­der­stand, the hype, the en­vi­ron­ment. But I think if we work hand in hand as band lead­ers, stake­hold­ers, and spec­ta­tors we can make San Fer­nan­do great again.”

With a new route im­ple­ment­ed by a new slate of over­seers of Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do, Kalicha­ran-Ma­hase said bet­ter could have been done for in­fra­struc­ture in the in­ter­est of the mas­quer­aders.

This year, the Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee con­sist­ed of May­or Robert Par­ris, Con­venor of Car­ni­val Daward Phillip and San Fer­nan­do Cul­ture and Arts chair­man Rayaad Ho­sein.

Not­ing one mas­quer­ad­er’s tum­ble at the main judg­ing point, Kalicha­ran-Ma­hase said: “There were a few pot­holes (at the judg­ing point). Hope­ful­ly, wher­ev­er they de­cide to put the judg­ing point in the fu­ture, may it be as SAPA, the Wharf on the Prom­e­nade, that those in­fra­struc­tures are care­ful­ly analysed and what­ev­er safe­ty mea­sures need to go in place they are ad­dressed. Some­one tripped and slipped, but it could hap­pen any­where, it could hap­pen on a smooth road, it could hap­pen on a bumpy road, so I don’t want to say that is a neg­a­tive thing, it can hap­pen any­where.”

She lament­ed: “We had some prob­lems on Mon­day but by Tues­day, they were rec­ti­fied, so that was good. It was a good route, but it was a bit short, so that is a teething process that we go­ing to have to look at to en­sure it is a bit longer.”

Par­ris said this was the first Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do un­der his stew­ard­ship and he had seen room for im­prove­ment for next year’s fes­ti­val.

Par­ris said: “My ap­proach go­ing for­ward is very struc­tured. ... I think that San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val prod­uct would cer­tain­ly im­prove … We at­tempt­ed a lot of firsts, all that I im­plore is for per­sons to be adults, stop the so­cial me­dia ban­ter…cer­tain­ly, I would ap­proach the stake­hold­ers in a dif­fer­ent man­ner next year, be­cause Car­ni­val is a busi­ness and in San Fer­nan­do, we need to treat Car­ni­val as a busi­ness. So it might be a lit­tle cul­ture shock for some per­sons, but we are prepar­ing for the fu­ture of San Fer­nan­do and that in­cludes a new route, with a new may­or, and a new coun­cil and I ask for con­tin­ued sup­port as we move for­ward.”

But Kalicha­ran-Ma­hase said the sea­son was too short for re­vised in­fra­struc­tur­al changes the com­mit­tee in­tend­ed for the San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val. She said if di­a­logues be­gan be­fore Sep­tem­ber, things would have been much smoother.

Phillip said the re­sults of the chil­dren’s mas and ole mas cat­e­gories will be an­nounced to­day.

Re­sults:

Small Band Cat­e­go­ry

1st Alvin May­nard and Friends - 428 points

2nd Just Il­lu­sion - 414

3rd June An­drews An­ton Dun­can and As­so­ciates - 409

Medi­um Band Cat­e­go­ry

1st D Jam­merz In­ter­na­tion­al Mil­i­tary Mas Band - 459

2nd Jages­sar Cos­tumes - 454

3rd Shean­na Al­leyne Pro­duc­tion - 431

Large Band Cat­e­go­ry

1st Kalicha­ran Mas - 459

Mon­day Night Mas

1st - Roll Call TT & Rum Va­grants - 253

2nd - 2 Bad Pro­mo­tions - 247

3rd - Fon­claire Steet Or­ches­tra - 242

J’Ou­vert Mod­ern Cat­e­go­ry

1st - B Man, Lord Street - 272

2nd - Poudre Cou­vert - 261

3rd - D’ Im­age Peo­ple - 258

J’Ou­vert Earth Cat­e­go­ry

1st - AG Cus­tom Events Cou­vert - 226

2nd - Ra­dio Ac­tive Cou­vert - 204

3rd - Ja­ma Pro­duc­tions - 202