Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

One of Ch­agua­nas’ most pop­u­lar J’Ou­vert bands, Jou­vert Junkiez, is promis­ing a pow­er­ful re­turn to the roots of Car­ni­val with its 2026 por­tray­al, Ra­ma­jay… Time to Break Away.

Found­ed in 2018 and based in Lange Park, Ch­agua­nas, the band has built a strong rep­u­ta­tion for blend­ing tra­di­tion­al J’Ou­vert mas with high-en­er­gy vibes, strong or­gan­i­sa­tion and a pre­mi­um street ex­pe­ri­ence. For 2026, band­leader and spokesman Ganesh Kalliecha­ran said the band is de­lib­er­ate­ly step­ping back in time to ho­n­our the his­toric ori­gins of J’Ou­vert in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“This is a throw­back to when J’Ou­vert start­ed with the Can­boulay ri­ots,” Kalliecha­ran said.

“It’s a sto­ry about slav­ery, eman­ci­pa­tion and British colo­nial­ism — a strug­gle where en­slaved peo­ple fought for their right to cel­e­brate freely on the streets. That strug­gle is what gave birth to Can­boulay and, even­tu­al­ly, J’Ou­vert.”

The 2026 theme will see Jou­vert Junkiez por­tray a sin­gle, co­he­sive sec­tion, with Kalliecha­ran him­self por­tray­ing the King of the band. Through char­ac­ter, cos­tume, mono­logue and stage pre­sen­ta­tion, the band plans to retell the sto­ry of re­sis­tance, re­silience and cul­tur­al free­dom that shaped ear­ly Car­ni­val.

While rel­a­tive­ly young, the band’s man­age­ment team brings years of ex­pe­ri­ence to the ta­ble. Pri­or to form­ing Jou­vert Junkiez, the four-mem­ber ex­ec­u­tive spent sev­er­al Car­ni­vals as part of the work­ing com­mit­tee of an­oth­er ma­jor Cen­tral-based J’Ou­vert band, Jun­abo Pro­duc­tions. Their re­spon­si­bil­i­ties ranged from sourc­ing raw ma­te­ri­als and man­ag­ing fi­nances to mar­ket­ing, pro­mo­tion, cos­tume as­sem­bly and on-the-road por­tray­al.

Since its in­cep­tion, Jou­vert Junkiez has re­mained firm­ly com­mu­ni­ty-based, cater­ing to ap­prox­i­mate­ly 800 mas­quer­aders each year. The band prides it­self on at­tract­ing rev­ellers from across the board.

Each year, Jou­vert Junkiez presents a folk­lore-based theme, com­plete with King and Queen por­tray­als and a mono­logue at the stage cross­ing, re­in­forc­ing the sto­ry­telling as­pect of tra­di­tion­al mas.

Over the years, the band has es­tab­lished it­self as a pow­er­house in the J’Ou­vert are­na, earn­ing sev­er­al ma­jor ac­co­lades, in­clud­ing Queen of the Bands in 2020, King and Queen of the Bands in 2023, Queen of the Bands and fourth place among large bands in 2024, and King and Queen of the Bands along with sec­ond place in the large band cat­e­go­ry in 2025.

Kalliecha­ran said band mem­bers view each Car­ni­val as a learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence, with an in­ter­nal chal­lenge to con­tin­u­al­ly raise the stan­dard of J’Ou­vert in the cen­tral bor­ough of Ch­agua­nas.

“Our aim is al­ways to im­prove and to make the ex­pe­ri­ence tru­ly mem­o­rable for our mas­quer­aders,” he said. “We are very con­scious of the im­age of Ch­agua­nas J’Ou­vert, and we work hard to keep that stan­dard high.”