Rap­so band 3canal re­turns to the Car­ni­val stage with an­oth­er ex­plo­sive the­atri­cal pro­duc­tion, this time sum­mon­ing a gath­er­ing of Mad Jabs.

The 22nd edi­tion of the band’s an­nu­al Car­ni­val show will be staged at Queen’s Hall on Feb­ru­ary 8, 9 and 10, be­gin­ning at 8 pm night­ly.

For more than two decades, the 3canal Car­ni­val show has pushed be­yond the bound­aries of a con­ven­tion­al con­cert, evolv­ing in­to a much-loved the­atri­cal ex­pe­ri­ence that weaves to­geth­er live mu­sic, dance and dra­ma, al­ways ground­ed in com­men­tary re­flec­tive of the times. This year’s Mad Jab pro­duc­tion high­lights an ur­gent call for peace — not on­ly in the re­gion, but across the world.

Car­ni­val it­self is root­ed in rit­u­al and re­bel­lion, and 3canal draws on that lin­eage by in­vok­ing the pow­er of the Mad Jab, in­spired by the tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ter Jab Jab — al­so known as the jester, trick­ster, jok­er or “heyokah”. The Mad Jab chan­nels the pow­er of laugh­ter, bal­anc­ing the sa­cred with the ir­rev­er­ent, help­ing au­di­ences con­front the chal­lenges of con­tem­po­rary life and make sense of the dai­ly “non­sense” that sur­rounds us.

The con­cept is fur­ther in­spired by the words of Guyanese po­et Mar­tin Carter, from his po­em This Is the Dark Time:

“This is the dark time, my love.

It is the sea­son of op­pres­sion,

dark met­al, and tears.

It is the fes­ti­val of guns,

the car­ni­val of mis­ery.”

Ac­cord­ing to the band, “this show is a com­men­tary on the times we seem to be liv­ing in — a pe­ri­od where dis­in­for­ma­tion and mis­in­for­ma­tion reign supreme, sow­ing chaos and con­fu­sion lo­cal­ly, re­gion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.”

These themes are ex­plored through 3canal’s 2026 re­leas­es Mad World and Be­yond the Bac­cha­nal, along­side the an­thems of re­sis­tance, cel­e­bra­tion and pride for which the rap­so pi­o­neers are best known.

This year al­so in­tro­duces a re­freshed line-up of the band’s cut + clear crew. Vet­er­an drum­mers Ever­ald ‘Red­man’ Wat­son and Wayne ‘Li­on’ Os­una an­chor the pro­duc­tion with ground­ed African drum vi­bra­tions, joined by gui­tarist Mark An­tho­ny ‘Emaye’ Pierre, Tony Paul on sax­o­phone and flute, and emerg­ing DJ SouthExst (Joshua Jokhan).

Adding vo­cal pow­er to the pro­duc­tion is the Mad Jab Chorale, with arrange­ments by long-time col­lab­o­ra­tor Glen­da Col­lens, along­side a cadre of mu­si­cal guests in­clud­ing Jus Lizz, Mo­gabi Thomas and Rheon El­bourne. To­geth­er, they promise a joy­ful noise — and a pow­er­ful, thought-pro­vok­ing, fun-filled ex­pe­ri­ence across three ex­hil­a­rat­ing nights.

“The 3canal Mad Jabs are gath­er­ing in a ral­ly, a ground­ing, a con­vois — a call for peace, love and com­mu­ni­ty in these mad, mad times we’re liv­ing in,” the band said.

A con­vois refers to slave so­ci­eties or­gan­ised “for the pur­pose of danc­ing and in­no­cent amuse­ments” — and re­bel­lion.

Event De­tails

Event: The 3canal Mad Jab Show 2026

Dates: Feb­ru­ary 8, 9 and 10, 2026

Time: 8.00 pm

Venue: Queen’s Hall, 1–3 St Ann’s Road, Port of Spain

Ad­mis­sion: Gen­er­al – $375 | Re­served – $425

(TTARP mem­bers re­ceive a $25 dis­count)

Tick­ets: Queen’s Hall Box Of­fice, The Big Black Box and is­landet­ick­ets.com