In­nis Fran­cis

in­nis_fran­cis@ya­hoo.com

San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val band Kalicha­ran Mas has won the Band of the Year ti­tle (San Fer­nan­do) for the 29th time.

The band, orig­i­nal­ly led by Ivan and Wendy Kalicha­ran, now nav­i­gat­ed by their chil­dren Aaron and Ayana Kalicha­ran, at­trib­uted the band’s suc­cess to hard work and plan­ning.

The re­sults were an­nounced late Thurs­day.

Aaron ex­pressed ju­bi­la­tion at the an­nounce­ment but main­tained that many things need­ed care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion at this year’s “Moth­er of All Car­ni­val.”

He said Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do this year saw very lit­tle im­prove­ment to the rev­el­ry, in­clud­ing the stake­hold­ers, band­lead­ers, the City Cor­po­ra­tion and the TTPS.

The for­mer na­tion­al Car­ni­val King said the on­ly re­gen­er­at­ed as­pect that South­ern­ers can boast about was the re­fur­bished Skin­ner Park and that the judg­ing point re­turned to the Rien­zi Kir­ton High­way.

He said, “Every­thing is a work in progress, every­thing has its grey ar­eas for im­prove­ments and op­por­tu­ni­ties. But we need to ask our­selves how can we im­prove and brand the city of San Fer­nan­do. And what can we do dif­fer­ent­ly?”

He said the 30-plus years of re­peat­ing the same er­rors has to stop and in­clude a col­lab­o­ra­tive ap­proach with all en­ti­ties in­volved in the Car­ni­val to have the same con­ver­sa­tions.

Aaron said what worked in the 80s and be­fore is not jus­ti­fi­able in to­day’s mas, giv­en the ter­rain, growth, the spec­i­fi­ca­tions of the cos­tumes.

He at­trib­uted Kalicha­ran’s last street pre­sen­ta­tion Re­set, to the fact that band mem­bers were un­able to get in­to the city de­spite hav­ing ac­cred­i­ta­tion by the City Cor­po­ra­tion and TTPS.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo al­so agreed that there were some “chal­lenges and cir­cum­stances” that left a bit­ter taste in the mouths of many.

Re­grel­lo said: “I think we did rea­son­ably well, we saw the last ar­rival of our al­lo­ca­tion. And we have to com­mend the bands for com­mit­ting them­selves giv­en the fact that they were go­ing in­to an are­na al­most blind and their pas­sion is what kept Car­ni­val alive in San Fer­nan­do, but we do have a lot of work to do, and there are sev­er­al as­pects of the Car­ni­val; the struc­ture, the judges…but we have to find ways and means to adapt to the chal­lenges.”

The re­sults

Large Band Cat­e­go­ry

1st: Kalicha­ran Mas - 460 points

2nd: Fire­works Pro­duc­tion - 438 points

3rd: Jages­sar Cos­tumes - 424 points

Medi­um Band Cat­e­go­ry

1st: Man and Lord Street Fu­sion Fam­i­ly Events - 405 points

2nd: South­ern Mas As­so­ciates - 398 points

3rd: ‘D’ Jam­merz In­ter­na­tion­al Mas - 393 points

Small Band Cat­e­go­ry

1st: Shen­na Al­leyne and As­so­ciates - 261 points

2nd: June An­drews, An­ton Dun­can and As­so­ciates - 249 points

3rd: Alvin May­nard - 235 points

Ju­nior Pa­rade of Bands Medi­um Non-School

1st: House of Jacqui - 269 points

2nd: An­ra Bobb and Friends - 255 points

3rd: Beach and As­so­ciates - 237 points

Ju­nior Pa­rade of Bands Small Non-School

1st - Heart and Soul - 235 points

2nd - Carivog - 233 points

3rd - ‘D’ Im­age Peo­ple - 241 points

J’Ou­vert Band - Tra­di­tion­al Cat­e­go­ry

1st D Blue Boys - 223 points

2nd - Min­istry of Sound - 199 points

3rd - Ra­dio Ac­tive J’Ou­vert - 190 points

J’Ou­vert Band - Mod­ern Cat­e­go­ry

1st - B Man and Lord Street Fu­sion Fam­i­ly Events - 271 points

2nd - ‘D’ Im­age Peo­ple - 258 points

3rd - Glam Jam J’Ou­vert Band and Dev’s Bar­ber Shop Crew

Mon­day Night Mas

1st - Min­istry of Sound Car­ni­val - 237 points

2nd - ‘D’ Im­age Peo­ple - 234 points

3rd - Re­born - 227 points