Even as thou­sands of rev­ellers par­tied through the streets of San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day morn­ing, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s de­ci­sion to step down and the de­ba­cle sur­round­ing sus­pend­ed Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher still found their way on stage dur­ing J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions.

For decades, D Blue Boys have kept the ole mas alive by de­pict­ing rel­e­vant and pop­u­lar events in the coun­try through sar­casm, hu­mour and satire. This year, their pre­sen­ta­tion Wha Goin On was no dif­fer­ent.

The band was one of two ole mas bands, the oth­er Phillip and Friends with Be­lieve It or Not, still keep­ing the tra­di­tion alive.

Some of D Blue Boys’ por­tray­als in­clud­ed Er­la Gets d’ Sack - Now She Out of Com­mis­sion, Deputy Plen­ty Takes Charge; Stu­art’s Pe­nal Roots and PM in Wait­ing. They al­so found hu­mour in the con­tro­ver­sy be­tween the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al and Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert.

Phillip and Friends’ pre­sen­ta­tion al­so in­clud­ed Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley’s move to step down and hand­ing over the reins of pow­er to En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young and the State of Emer­gency. Oth­er por­tray­als in­clud­ed Plen­ty Pipe, No Wa­ter and Ah Still See­ing Pot-holes. 

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris, who of­fi­cial­ly opened the cel­e­bra­tions, said an es­ti­mat­ed 30 J’Ou­vert bands reg­is­tered this year.

“This is our J’Ou­vert, San Fer­nan­do J’Ou­vert. I told Trinidad and To­ba­go we have the biggest J’Ou­vert in the coun­try and what you are all in store for is one of the great­est shows for the Car­ni­val sea­son that you will be see­ing in San Fer­nan­do. 

“We are very proud about what we do and part of the Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence in Trinidad should be San Fer­nan­do J’Ou­vert,” the may­or said as he opened the fes­tiv­i­ties.

Boast­ing that the size of the bands has al­so in­creased, he said there is a lot of in­ter­est by mem­bers of the pub­lic in San Fer­nan­do J’Ou­vert, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter City Month, which saw 12,000 rev­ellers.

Hope­ful that every­one en­joys a safe, pro­duc­tive and clean Car­ni­val, he said, “The mes­sage to every­one is play safe and en­joy them­selves in the rev­el­ry in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The may­or as­sured that po­lice of­fi­cers were out in full force to en­sure J’Ou­vert was the safest in the coun­try.

Rize Dawn of a New Day was the first band to per­form be­fore the judges in front of the South­ern Acad­e­my for Per­form­ing Arts along the Rien­zi Kir­ton High­way.

Last year, the judg­ing point was at King’s Wharf, but it was re­vert­ed to SAPA af­ter com­plaints by mas­quer­aders and spec­ta­tors. 

Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Min­is­ter Ran­dall Mitchell al­so took a “stress re­liev­er,” tak­ing time out to jump up with the Glam Jam band. 

South/Cen­tral As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Wayne Mys­tar said cel­e­bra­tions in the South­ern, South­west­ern and Cen­tral polic­ing di­vi­sions were in­ci­dent-free and there was an ex­cel­lent turnout of po­lice of­fi­cers.  The ear­ly morn­ing cel­e­bra­tions were card­ed to end at 11 am, but the po­lice gave mas­quer­aders and spec­ta­tors an ad­di­tion­al hour and of­fi­cial­ly locked off the fes­tiv­i­ties around noon.