Short­ly af­ter 1.30 pm, in bril­liant sun­shine, Ron­nie and Caro's 2012 pre­sen­ta­tion of The Mask of ... was the first band to cross the stage in Down­town Port-of-Spain. That sig­nalled the of­fi­cial start of Pa­rade of the Bands for Car­ni­val Mon­day. Most of the rev­ellers did not wear their full cos­tume. The sec­ond band, which crossed the stage al­most an hour lat­er, was Lega­cy with their pre­sen­ta­tion, Flight. The crowd in the Down­town stands were small­er than in pre­vi­ous years. None of them were filled to ca­pac­i­ty.

There was al­so a small turnout of spec­ta­tors on the streets of the cap­i­tal city yes­ter­day. Machel Mon­tano seemed set to re­claim the Road March ti­tle. His Pump Your Flag was the most played song yes­ter­day. The on­ly oth­er con­tenders at Down­town were for­mer road march cham­pi­ons Fay-Ann Lyons with Miss Be­have and Iw­er George's No Pain. They were in a close bat­tle for sec­ond place on the first of day of the Pa­rade of the Bands. Some mas­quer­aders were heed­ing Fay Ann's di­rec­tive to jump and roll and were seen rolling on the ground to the pul­sat­ing beat of her so­ca song. Yes­ter­day's cel­e­bra­tions were in­ci­dent free. The bands are ex­pect­ed to be in their full cos­tumes to­day.