Vet­er­an mas­quer­ad­er Roland St George was crowned King of the Bands ear­ly yes­ter­day morn­ing af­ter a stiff com­pe­ti­tion that was filled with ties and ex­treme­ly close tie-break­ers. St George's daz­zling por­tray­al of Ral­liez-Vous A Mon Panache pre­vent­ed cel­e­brat­ed mas de­sign­er Bri­an Mac Far­lane from a to­tal sweep in this year's Kings and Queens com­pe­ti­tion.

Mac­Far­lane's King, Malak Yah­weh-The Pray­ing Man­tis, por­trayed by Ger­ard Weekes, was three points be­hind St George in sec­ond place.

How­ev­er, Mac Far­lane's Queen, Moth­er of Hu­man­i­ty-The Weep­ing Madon­na, por­trayed by Charisse Bovell placed first place in that com­pe­ti­tion. The com­pe­ti­tions, or­gan­ised by the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (NC­BA), were part of Car­ni­val Sun­day night's gala Di­manche Gras show at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain. St George's black and sil­ver cos­tume of shim­mer­ing metal­lic foil, re­flect­ed the lights at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah mag­nif­i­cent­ly and cap­tured the at­ten­tion of spec­ta­tors and judges. Bovell's all white, in­tri­cate­ly-de­signed cos­tume was hand-craft­ed us­ing nat­ur­al ma­te­ri­als.

Rox­anne Oma­lo, 65, of San­gre Grande, placed sec­ond among the Queens with Last Dance of the En­chant­ed Witch­es. The elab­o­rate cos­tume fea­tured on-board py­rotech­nics, spe­cial ef­fects light­ing and a smoke ma­chine. Nine-time Car­ni­val King Cur­tis Eu­stace had to set­tle for third place with D Mid­night Mes­sen­ger, the largest of all the cos­tumes in the com­pe­ti­tion. Last year's Car­ni­val King, Wayne Madray, placed eighth in the ten-man com­pe­ti­tion with Flight of Con­science. San Fer­nan­do stu­dent Adri­an Young was a sur­prise on the night with his por­tray­al of The Crow in which he seemed to fly around the stage bal­anc­ing nim­bly on stilts. Young placed fourth. South-based mas­quer­ad­er Rose Marie Ku­ru Jages­sar with Wachi­wi-I Dream of a Bus­tle Dancer placed third in the Queens com­pe­ti­tion. SEE PAGE A23