Shal­iza Has­sanali

Un­der the blis­ter­ing sun yes­ter­day, thou­sands of chil­dren dressed in colour­ful and shim­mer­ing cos­tumes frol­icked through­out the streets in the cap­i­tal city for the Re­pub­lic Bank 2012 Ju­nior Pa­rade of the Bands. The event, which cap­tured the at­ten­tion of a small group of spec­ta­tors at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain-the main judg­ing venue-saw over 100 mi­ni, small, medi­um and large bands cross­ing the stage in a kalei­do­scope of colour.

The bands were judged in var­i­ous cat­e­gories rang­ing from his­tor­i­cal, cre­ative, top­i­cal, fan­ta­sy, orig­i­nal, fan­cy sailor and ole time Car­ni­val. Some of the band­lead­ers even paid trib­ute to ca­lyp­so icons such as David Rud­der and Su­per Blue in their cre­ations. Even pro­lif­ic mas­man Wayne Berke­ley who passed on last year was salut­ed by pupils of Car­ni­val Ba­bies with their pre­sen­ta­tion Jam­ming to the Beat-In Mem­o­ry of Wayne Berke­ley.

From babes in arms to pre-teens were present to show­case an ar­ray of beau­ti­ful­ly de­signed cos­tumes un­der the theme "D Re­al Car­ni­val." First to grace the stage with an en­er­getic per­for­mance of Machel Mon­tano's in­fec­tious Mr Fete song was mi­ni band, Re­pub­lic Min­strell. Decked in blue and black west coats, white jer­seys and black and white hats, the tiny tots danced, jumped and pranced with their par­ents and guardians to re­ceive the judges ap­proval.

Trail­ing be­hind was Pre­cious Mo­ments Pre-school with its small band It's A Jun­gle Out There, pro­duced by band­leader Suzanne Rahim. Their striped cos­tumes de­pict­ed an­i­mals in the wild, main­ly tigers.