De­spite in­clement weath­er, the Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee (CCC) de­liv­ered long-await­ed cash prizes and tro­phies to win­ners of its 2026 Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tions dur­ing a func­tion at the Cou­va/Pt Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce last Wednes­day.

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion chair­man Pe­ter Kan­hai hailed the suc­cess of Cou­va Car­ni­val dur­ing the event and reaf­firmed the NCC’s com­mit­ment to con­tin­u­ing to place em­pha­sis on the de­vel­op­ment of re­gion­al ac­tiv­i­ties.

“Con­tin­ue to build the Car­ni­val prod­uct you have in Cou­va and you can be as­sured of the NCC’s full sup­port in your en­deav­ours. Con­grat­u­la­tions to your com­mit­tee, all win­ners and all the stake­hold­ers who con­tributed in mak­ing Cou­va Car­ni­val a huge suc­cess,” said Kan­hai, who is the first NCC chair to vis­it Cou­va Car­ni­val it­self and al­so ad­dress its prize dis­tri­b­u­tion func­tion.

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro/Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ryan Ram­per­sad told the au­di­ence that one of the great­est ac­com­plish­ments of Cou­va Car­ni­val has been its abil­i­ty to pro­vide a plat­form for young and emerg­ing tal­ent.

“The Cou­va stage has served not on­ly as en­ter­tain­ment but as a launch­ing pad for tal­ent. Over the years, many artistes who have per­formed in Cou­va have gone on to achieve na­tion­al ac­claim and make im­por­tant con­tri­bu­tions to the cul­tur­al life of T&T,” Ram­per­sad not­ed.

Snr Supt Ravi Bhag­wan­deen, head of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice’s Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, said he was hap­py to re­port an in­ci­dent-free car­ni­val in Cou­va.

“The of­fi­cers on the ground kept in con­stant con­tact with Cen­tral Com­mand and the feed­back was that peo­ple turned out in large num­bers in Cou­va and oth­er cen­tral lo­ca­tions be­cause of the safe en­vi­ron­ment. We worked with all stake­hold­ers in cen­tral Trinidad on our safe­ty-first polic­ing ap­proach to achieve our ob­jec­tives,” he ex­plained.

CCC chair­man Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj thanked all stake­hold­ers for in­vest­ing their re­sources, cre­ativ­i­ty and en­er­gy to de­liv­er a mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ence at 2026 Cou­va Car­ni­val fes­tiv­i­ties.

Se­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch - Am­ri­ka Mutroo

Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch - Janaya Clarke

Miss Cen­tral Trinidad - Is­hana Edgar

Pa­rade of the Bands

Band of the Year - Stealth Tech Ltd- Re­turn of the Red In­di­ans. Leader: Man­no Bridglal

King of the Bands: Ja­son Ram­nath - Re­turn of the Red In­di­ans

Queen of the Bands: Jaishri Ram­sa­roop - Re­turn of the Red In­di­ans

Kid­dies Car­ni­val

Band of the Year: House of Jacqui- Come Fly With Me.

King of the Bands: Joel Rocke - House of Jacqui

Queen of the Bands: Ne­tanya Phillip - House of Jacqui

J’Ou­vert

Band of the Year: Maljo J’Ou­vert. Leader: Neal Wall

King of J’Ou­vert: Aaron Thor­ing­ton - Maljo J’Ou­vert

Queen of J’Ou­vert: Jerene Thor­ing­ton - Maljo J’Ou­vert