Yvonne Ba­boolal

Band­leader Bri­an Mac Far­lane con­tin­ued his reign of glo­ry for the fifth con­sec­u­tive year when he won large Band of the Year for the fifth con­sec­u­tive time, with 1,335 points, at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah.

The an­nounce­ment was made by the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion yes­ter­day. Mac Far­lane's pre­sen­ta­tion, Hu­man­i­ty: Cir­cle of Life, in­spired by Khalil Gibran's, The Prophet, al­so won the Down­town Car­ni­val large band com­pe­ti­tion for the sev­enth time in a row. Mau­rice Cheva­lier, com­mu­ni­ca­tions of­fi­cer for the band, de­scribed the wins as "un­prece­dent­ed."

Ac­cord­ing to records from the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion, how­ev­er, Wayne Berke­ley pre­vi­ous­ly won large band of the year six con­sec­u­tive times and still holds the record. Tri­ni Rev­ellers' Tales of Mer­rie Olde Eng­land placed sec­ond in the large band cat­e­go­ry while Lega­cy came in third with its pre­sen­ta­tion, South Pa­cif­ic. In what many felt was a fore­gone con­clu­sion, top T&T so­ca en­ter­tain­er, Machel Mon­tano, grabbed the Road March ti­tle with Ad­van­tage when his song was played 410 times across T&T. Mon­tano, who al­so won $2 mil­lion when he copped the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion with the same song, beat Ben­jai (Rod­ney Le Blanc's) Tri­ni in­to sec­ond place.

Tri­ni was played 303 times. Iw­er George's Come To Me was played 61 times and placed third. Cheva­lier, who spoke to the T&T Guardian af­ter the an­nounce­ments of the re­sults yes­ter­day, said: "The way the sto­ry was told, how the cos­tumes are se­quenced." Cheva­lier gave the re­ply when asked the rea­son for Mac Far­lane's con­tin­u­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty. He added: "This is an in­di­ca­tion that peo­ple ap­pre­ci­ate and en­joy the re­al mas that we pro­duce. "The gen­uine cre­ativ­i­ty of Car­ni­val is be­ing lost if cos­tumes have to be made out­side. "Peo­ple wait for Mac Far­lane's band to see some­thing dif­fer­ent."

Cheva­lier com­plained, how­ev­er, that the wait to cross the stage at the Sa­van­nah was way too long. "It was, by far, the worst ever. We wait­ed for al­most eight hours to cross the stage. We were on Fred­er­ick Street at 1 pm and did not cross the stage un­til af­ter nine," he added. He said the band may con­sid­er not cross­ing the stage next year un­less or­gan­i­sa­tion was im­proved. "Hav­ing the mas­quer­aders wait so long takes away from the plea­sure of mas," he said.

Bands of the year

Large

1. Hu­man­i­ty-Cir­cle of Life - Mac Far­lane Car­ni­val - 1,335

2. Tales of Mer­rie Olde Eng­land - Tri­ni Rev­ellers - 1,278

3. South Pa­cif­ic - Lega­cy - 1,198

4. Colour of Green - Show­time Trinidad - 1,058

Medi­um

1. Sur­vivors - Ron­nie & Caro, The Mas Band - 1,190

2. Vil­lage Life - Ros­alind Gabriel and Vil­lage Pro­duc­tions - 1,177

3. D Latin Fla­va - D Har­vard Rev­ellers Inc Ltd - 1,173

4. Fleets in - Trinidad All Stars Steel­band - 1,167

Small

1. Beau­ty Be­neath The Sea - Bel­mont Orig­i­nal Sylish Sailors - 1,203

2. Gath­er­ing Of The First Peo­ple - Trib­al Con­nec­tion - 1,193

3. Greece, The Lega­cy - The Bel­mont Jew­els - 1,036

4. Sail­ing Around The World - Mt. Hope Con­nec­tion - 1,023

Mi­ni

1. Play De Mas - The Orig­i­nal Jab Jab - 1,199

2. Son Of A Wat­less - 2001 Jab Malassie - 1,134

3. In­di­ans Are Com­ing - Vil­lage Peo­ple - 1,114

4. Hell Rais­ers - Pe­ter Fe­li­cian and As­so­ciates - 1,107