Like Lor­raine, if you need­ed a lil’ run­away to en­joy all that the Great­est Show on Earth has to of­fer, yes­ter­day’s So­cadrome, in par­tic­u­lar, was un­de­ni­ably the place to be.

Spec­ta­tors filled the stands of Jean Pierre Com­plex, Port-of-Spain, en­joy­ing the con­ve­nience of Car­ni­val com­ing to them in one phys­i­cal set­ting.

The day start­ed with a clear sky, ush­er­ing the warm tem­per­a­tures to co­in­cide with the heat­ed spec­ta­cles that were about to cross the stage.

Mas bands Bliss, Tribe and Rogue led the charge of bands that were ex­pect­ed to show­case their beau­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty.

Lo­cals of all ages gath­ered to en­joy the show­case, some from great dis­tances.

Wen­dell Mar­tinez jour­neyed to So­cadrome from Pe­nal with his fam­i­ly and said that the long dri­ve was worth it.

“This is the first time we came to the So­cadrome, and I want­ed to ex­pe­ri­ence it ver­sus go­ing to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah. You could sit down here and re­mem­ber I have chil­dren, so it is easy to ac­com­mo­date them,” Mar­tinez said.

Mu­sic roy­al­ty Machel Mon­tano was al­so present at the So­cadrome. This year’s crowned Ca­lyp­so Monarch found time in his busy school sched­ule to cross the stage with his Tribe, prov­ing his in­sis­tence to nev­er miss a next Car­ni­val again.

But for a change, a Mon­tano hit did not em­anate from the mu­sic trucks lin­ing the stage. In­stead, Mi­cal Te­ja’s ‘DNA’ and ‘Car­ni­val Con­tract’ by Bun­ji Gar­lin kept mas­quer­aders en­er­gised and spec­ta­tors on their feet.

Au­di­ences were left in awe, when Ju­nior King and Queen, Leonar­do Fe­li­cien and Jadya Forde graced the stage with their mag­nif­i­cent por­tray­al that se­cured their 2024 vic­to­ries.

The cul­tur­al dis­play of mas leg­end Pe­ter Min­shall’s Tan Tan and Saga Boy and a stick-fight­ing rit­u­al prompt­ed the oohs and ahs made by tourists.

Even tourists who were ful­ly dressed with their re­spect­ful mas bands, broke away to take in the cul­tur­al dis­plays of Car­ni­val.

Ac­cord­ing to Mike Lewis from Lon­don, Eng­land, this past week­end was in­deed an im­por­tant high­light of his life.

“I’ve been to a cou­ple of fetes, the J’Ou­vert. I did yes­ter­day and now to­day. I’m lov­ing every minute of it. I’ll sleep to­mor­row,” Lewis said as he ex­it­ed with his mas band Bliss.

“You guys re­al­ly know how to par­ty here,” an­oth­er vis­i­tor in­ter­ject­ed with en­thu­si­asm.

Jor­nell from St Lu­cia ad­mit­ted that he has been wait­ing all his life to ex­pe­ri­ence Car­ni­val in T&T, which he may have con­fessed was the ‘best one.’

Ven­dors and ar­ti­sans al­so en­joyed be­ing at the So­cadrome and ad­mit­ted that they were not dis­ap­point­ed with sales this year.

Small busi­ness Ex­quis­ite Is­lander dis­played hand­made jew­ellery and ac­ces­sories that at­tract­ed mas­quer­aders and tourists.

“It is go­ing re­al­ly good. We are meet­ing new peo­ple we haven’t met be­fore. I love the mu­sic, I’m ac­tu­al­ly get­ting two in one, mu­sic and sales,” said co-own­er Cer­ron Mor­ton.

Nichelle Su­perville of Jae Chell Co Ltd came to So­cadrome from Matu­ra and shared sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments.

“Sales are com­ing slow­ly and sure­ly. Lo­cals and for­eign­ers are look­ing. Be­ing here is ex­cit­ing,” Su­perville said.