Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions in Ch­agua­nas came to a rous­ing fi­nale on Tues­day, as thou­sands of rev­ellers and spec­ta­tors con­verged on the big stage at Ram­saran Street for the much-an­tic­i­pat­ed Pa­rade of the Bands.

From as ear­ly as 2 pm, pa­trons be­gan stream­ing in­to the venue, ea­ger to soak up the colour, rhythm and rev­el­ry. The spec­ta­cle of­fi­cial­ly sprang to life short­ly af­ter 5 pm when the Waraos, a small band from South Trinidad, made their vi­brant cross­ing.

From that mo­ment, there was a steady and elec­tri­fy­ing flow of bands and in­di­vid­ual mas­quer­aders, each adding their own flair to the evening.

Tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ters de­light­ed the crowd, among them the book­men, blue dev­ils, fan­cy dev­ils and tow­er­ing go­ril­las, draw­ing cheers and ap­plause as they brought folk­lore and fan­ta­sy to the stage.

Among the larg­er pre­sen­ta­tions were Il­lu­sion’s Re­birth, John Roberts’ The El­e­ments and Stealth Tech’s strik­ing por­tray­al of the Red In­di­ans, each show­cas­ing cre­ativ­i­ty, crafts­man­ship and Car­ni­val sto­ry­telling at its finest.

As the night deep­ened, the cel­e­bra­tions con­clud­ed on a mu­si­cal high with a stir­ring steel­pan per­for­mance by T&TEC Trop­i­cal An­gel Harps, send­ing pa­trons home with the sweet sound of pan echo­ing through the bor­ough.

Speak­ing af­ter­wards, Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee chair­man Melis­sa Jadoo­nanan de­clared the event a re­sound­ing suc­cess.

“The odds were stacked against this com­mit­tee. We had more than our fair share of chal­lenges. It’s Car­ni­val Tues­day and I am thrilled to an­nounce that, fur­ther to re­ports from the TTPS, we have had an in­ci­dent-free Car­ni­val through­out the days of cel­e­bra­tions,” she said.

“I want to say thank you to the TTPS and all law en­force­ment that re­spond­ed to our calls for in­creased strength with­in the bor­ough.”

She added, “With all the hours of plan­ning and con­sul­ta­tion, we de­liv­ered on safe­ty. With our sub­ven­tion from NCC and cor­po­rate spon­sor­ships, we were able to erect a stage where all events took place in prop­er or­der—stick-fight­ing, ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tions, Kid­dies Car­ni­val, J’Ou­vert and Tues­day’s Pa­rade of the Bands.

I want to ex­tend my grat­i­tude to my com­mit­tee mem­bers for their sac­ri­fice and un­wa­ver­ing sup­port. This was team­work at its best. ... I am very proud that to­geth­er with my com­mit­tee mem­bers, with lim­it­ed time and lim­it­ed fund­ing, we were able to achieve re­sults noth­ing short of mirac­u­lous.”