SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

From go­ril­las in full PPE to Blue Dev­ils with res­pi­ra­tors and a new vari­ant of the COVID-19 virus, the pan­dem­ic played a ma­jor role in this year’s Tra­di­tion­al Mas In­di­vid­u­als com­pe­ti­tion yes­ter­day.

How­ev­er, the event, held at Car­ni­val City in the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, did not draw a large crowd of spec­ta­tors as many ex­pect­ed. The event al­so in­clud­ed the Con­ven­tion­al Mas In­di­vid­u­als com­pe­ti­tion.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA) pres­i­dent and Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) com­mis­sion­er Ros­alind Gabriel told Guardian Me­dia she was very dis­ap­point­ed with the small num­ber of peo­ple who turned up to wit­ness one of the tra­di­tion­al as­pects of this year’s Taste of Car­ni­val.

“I don’t know what else could have been done, be­cause when I was asked what fee I would charge be­cause it’s a TTC­BA event, I said no fee, free. So if they not even com­ing out to see an event for free, then it’s dis­ap­point­ing,” Gabriel said.

How­ev­er, she was over­joyed to see mas on dis­play once more in the Sa­van­nah.

“I am over­joyed, we tried hard to make sure this hap­pened and all the mas­quer­aders who are here, they are very very hap­py to be here. I have tried re­al­ly hard, the TTC­BA, to make sure this came off. I think it’s very im­por­tant for us to get our feet wet this year, in prepa­ra­tion for 2023.”

She said the small au­di­ence turnout was not as im­por­tant as giv­ing mas­quer­aders an op­por­tu­ni­ty to por­tray their char­ac­ters on stage.

“The im­por­tant thing is that the mas­quer­aders are get­ting a chance to com­pete for prizes, which is im­por­tant for them. They haven’t worked for two years,” Gabriel said.

She re­mains op­ti­mistic, how­ev­er, that more peo­ple will turn out to sup­port the mas­quer­aders for the Kings and Queens com­pe­ti­tion to­mor­row (Feb­ru­ary 22.)

“I know there will prob­a­bly be a big­ger turnout for the Kings and Queens and all in­di­ca­tors so far point to that.”

Among the ap­prox­i­mate­ly 100 au­di­ence mem­bers were two vet­er­an mas­men who seemed to be en­joy­ing the dis­plays put on by the mas­quer­aders.

Chris San­tos, a de­sign­er from Care­nage, said he was hop­ing to see more char­ac­ters on stage.

“I felt there were too few cos­tumes com­ing out but I am en­joy­ing it, I thought a lot of the tra­di­tion­al peo­ple would have come out but it’s on­ly a few, that’s my on­ly dis­ap­point­ment but I am en­joy­ing it,” San­tos said.

He said he was not wor­ried about be­ing part of the crowd, as the safe zone guide­lines were strict­ly ad­hered to and au­di­ence mem­bers were screened be­fore en­ter­ing the venue.

“It’s very good, they check you, check your ID, your vac­ci­na­tion cer­tifi­cate, tem­per­a­ture and sani­tise, can’t ask for more,” San­tos said.

He too lament­ed at the poor turnout of spec­ta­tors.

“I have been in it for many years so I want­ed to give them sup­port. I am re­al­ly dis­ap­point­ed we didn’t have more par­tic­i­pa­tion, peo­ple should have come out to see it.”

Al­though San­tos did not de­sign any cos­tumes this year, he was pleased with the of­fer­ings that crossed the stage, clap­ping and cheer­ing the mas­quer­aders on.

Fel­low mas­man and a for­mer Car­ni­val King Gre­go­ry Med­i­na mean­while said he be­lieved fear amongst the pop­u­la­tion kept spec­ta­tors away from the event.

“There are a lot of peo­ple who who have reser­va­tions and fears, some un­found­ed and some down­right strange, even seem­ing­ly ed­u­cat­ed peo­ple give you the weird­est of ar­gu­ments of why it shouldn’t be. But it is Car­ni­val and they are giv­ing you a chance to do some­thing, come out, par­tic­i­pate and help, but it doesn’t seem as though it is trick­ling through to the pop­u­la­tion at all,” Med­i­na said.

He said the con­fu­sion that en­sued in the days lead­ing up to the re­lease of the sched­ule of events con­fused many, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter NCC chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters an­nounced one bud­get - of $30 mil­lion - and days lat­er, the Min­istry of Cul­ture an­nounced the ap­proved bud­get was ac­tu­al­ly $15 mil­lion.

“The things (pods) were al­ready built, the con­trac­tors were al­ready paid and now you are dis­cussing what bud­get is al­lo­cat­ed, that’s is what I sup­pose turned off a lot of peo­ple,” Med­i­na said.

De­spite his reser­va­tions, Med­i­na said he was thor­ough­ly en­joy­ing the Taste of Car­ni­val and is al­ready look­ing for­ward to next year’s event.

“I hope that 2023 come quick­ly and it’s well or­gan­ised and it’s ex­plo­sive-we could re­al­ly look for­ward to that,” he said.

Guardian Me­dia al­so spoke to sev­er­al of the mas­quer­aders be­fore they took to the stage to show off their cos­tumes.

Jer­rell Jones, who por­trayed the “Book­man,” was very ex­cit­ed for the chance to cross the stage.

He said he had hoped there would be more par­tic­i­pants in the com­pe­ti­tion but said that did not damp­en his good feel­ings.

Out­fit­ted in the daz­zling “Azul Drag­on” cos­tume, Jochelle Quashie was al­so ex­cit­ed.

“I’m so ex­cit­ed. The oth­er par­tic­i­pants looked good, some out­stand­ing and im­pres­sive, I look out­stand­ing and im­pres­sive too,” he said with a grin.

As Quashie pre­pared to take the stage, the self-pro­claimed new COVID vari­ant - a cross be­tween a go­ril­la and a bat, queued up be­hind him. Travis Mc Neil­ly, who por­trayed the strange char­ac­ter, said he had come from Point Fortin to take part in the event.

Mc Neil­ly said he was por­tray­ing the Go­ril­la-Bat - and he al­so had a ba­by Go­ril­la-Bat tucked in a pouch in the front of his cos­tume, Kan­ga­roo-style.

“I feel ex­cit­ed af­ter be­ing locked down for al­most two years, my cos­tume was built in a hur­ry but I still came out to en­joy my­self to the best and see where I could place in the com­pe­ti­tion this year. I am very grate­ful for the Taste of Car­ni­val that gives us an op­por­tu­ni­ty to come out and por­tray our mas, we are grate­ful to the Prime Min­is­ter,” Mc Neil­ly said.