By Nigel Teles­ford

Ther­mome­ters hit 31 de­grees Cel­sius in south Trinidad on Wednes­day, but ear­ly Car­ni­val ac­tion at Kairi Peo­ple’s Run­away all-in­clu­sive event made the at­mos­phere at South­ern Ranch in Debe feel even hot­ter.

Scorch­ing in­to the 2026 Car­ni­val sea­son, So­ca Queen Patrice Roberts kicked off the live ac­tion around 4.15 pm, backed by her ‘A Team Band.’ The re­vamped lay­out cre­at­ed a freer-flow­ing con­course, with the pool cov­ered and con­vert­ed in­to an el­e­vat­ed dance floor.

D All Starz band fol­lowed an hour lat­er, fea­tur­ing spe­cial guests Ani­ka Berry, Free­town Col­lec­tive, Sekon Sta, Ding Dong, Mi­cal Te­ja, Yung Bred­da, Voice, and Ul­ti­mate So­ca Cham­pi­on Bla­ka Dan.

Yung Bred­da, D All Starz front­man, Col­lege Boy Jesse, and Voice all re­ceived the most en­thu­si­as­tic re­cep­tions, ig­nit­ing the crowd’s en­er­gy. Hun­dreds of so­ca and fete-lov­ing pa­trons—who “ran away” from their dai­ly rou­tines—en­joyed an ear­ly Car­ni­val es­cape and a vi­brant taste of the sea­son ahead.

Known as one of the most af­ford­able events, Kairi Peo­ple’s Run­away con­tin­ues to at­tract large crowds, de­liv­er­ing great val­ue and spread­ing joy and mer­ri­ment as T&T Car­ni­val 2026 ap­proach­es.