DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

De­spite the peren­ni­al chal­lenges mas­quer­aders face dur­ing the Great­est Show on Earth, one thing is for sure—they like to “Pardy.”

Machel Mon­tano’s hit was the clear fron­trun­ner for the Road March ti­tle, with Bun­ji Gar­lin’s Car­ry It trail­ing be­hind yes­ter­day, ac­cord­ing to un­of­fi­cial counts.

Al­though he ac­knowl­edged the tough com­pe­ti­tion, recog­nis­ing Car­ry It as a strong con­tender, Mon­tano told re­porters at The Car­ni­val Oa­sis that he was “very ea­ger, very hope­ful, very cau­tious” about what seemed to be an­oth­er vic­to­ry.

If Mon­tano is de­clared the win­ner to­day, he will tie with the leg­endary de­ceased Ald­wyn “Lord Kitch­en­er” Roberts, both hold­ing an im­pres­sive 11 Road March ti­tles.

“I don’t want to over-cel­e­brate, but, I mean, some­times when you’re reach­ing the top of a moun­tain, you have to save your oxy­gen and climb calm­ly. I don’t know why I’m get­ting emo­tion­al,” Mon­tano said at The Car­ni­val Oa­sis, a lux­u­ry rest stop at Veronique’s in St Clair that caters to mas­quer­aders.

“It’s about work­ing hard. And what do we work hard for? We work hard to get close to Kitch­en­er. We work hard to make songs that make peo­ple feel good,” he added.

With Car­ni­val of­fi­cial­ly over, Mon­tano is look­ing for­ward to pardy­ing—in his sleep, as he hopes to fi­nal­ly get some much-need­ed rest fol­low­ing a long sea­son.

At the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Mon­tano’s Pardy ap­peared to dom­i­nate, play­ing more fre­quent­ly than any oth­er song. How­ev­er, Gar­lin’s Car­ry It al­so had mas­quer­aders singing at the top of their lungs.

Thou­sands of rev­ellers de­scend­ed on the QPS for the fi­nal leg of Car­ni­val yes­ter­day, bring­ing the streets to life with daz­zling cos­tumes.

Tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ters—in­clud­ing Blue Dev­ils, Mid­night Rob­bers, and Red Dev­ils—marched along­side the usu­al pret­ty mas bands.

For some, there was no de­bate about their Road March pick.

Ra­dio an­nounc­er Abeo Jack­son threw her sup­port be­hind Gar­lin, de­clar­ing, “Be­cause the ground has al­ways and will for­ev­er Car­ry It.”

Mean­while, reign­ing Road March cham­pi­on Mi­cal Te­ja, who al­so played with Lost Tribe this year, stayed neu­tral, sim­ply ac­knowl­edg­ing the sea­son’s top three hits—in­clud­ing his own.

“We Pardy, but we have to Car­ry It, and we have to bring the En­er­gy,” he said.

Still, Te­ja ad­mit­ted he was re­lieved not to be in the com­pe­ti­tion this time around.

“I could ac­tu­al­ly be in the band, cruise, and have a time. This year, I just love be­ing on the road—not hav­ing to wor­ry about ‘Wah go­ing on with Road March?’ It’s good to just be out there with the peo­ple,” he said.

Re­pub­lic Bank Ex­o­dus, this year’s large-band Panora­ma cham­pi­on, was al­so spot­ted play­ing in­fec­tious melodies as sailors danced across the stage.

For some, it was a joy­ous re­turn to play­ing mas; for oth­ers, it was their first time. How­ev­er, many lament­ed on­go­ing is­sues—from the high cost of cos­tumes to the dwin­dling num­ber of spec­ta­tors.

Cre­ative con­sul­tant Richard Young, who played with Lost Tribe for the first time, was thrilled by the ex­pe­ri­ence but dis­ap­point­ed by the emp­ty stands.

“What’s miss­ing is spec­ta­tors. They need more peo­ple watch­ing be­cause the ex­change be­tween the spec­ta­tor and the mas­quer­ad­er is what makes the mas,” he said.

Trin­ni Forbes, vis­it­ing from Penn­syl­va­nia, echoed the sen­ti­ment, ar­gu­ing that high prices were pre­vent­ing more lo­cals from par­tic­i­pat­ing.

“Make it af­ford­able so our own peo­ple can be part of this great show. Just look at the stands—it’s emp­ty,” he said.

Myr­tle John, a Trinida­di­an liv­ing in Or­lan­do, voiced frus­tra­tion over de­lays at the judg­ing point.

“Last night, it took us five hours from the time we left un­til we even tried to get on stage. That’s too long,” she said.

De­spite the chal­lenges, both young and old took part in the fes­tiv­i­ties—in­clud­ing those who were in­jured but re­fused to be left out of the cel­e­bra­tion.

While it re­mains un­clear whether con­cerns over long de­lays, cost­ly cos­tumes, and low turnout will ever be ad­dressed, one thing is cer­tain—noth­ing can stop the peo­ple from tak­ing to the streets to dance to their favourite so­ca hits in their most cre­ative and stun­ning cos­tumes.