Re­turn of the Red In­di­ans, pre­sent­ed by Stealth Tech Lim­it­ed Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee, made a com­plete sweep of all ma­jor awards in the re­cent Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee’s Pa­rade of the Bands com­pe­ti­tion.

Led by Man­noo Bridglal and com­ing out of Chase Vil­lage, Ch­agua­nas, Re­turn of the In­di­ans was ad­judged Band of the Year for the sec­ond year run­ning, win­ning a first prize of $12,000 and a tro­phy.

In ad­di­tion, the band cap­tured all four in­di­vid­ual prizes on of­fer. Ja­son Ram­nath cap­tured King of the Bands with his por­tray­al of The Grand Ca­noe. Ra­jshri Ram­sa­roop took Queen of the Bands with a cos­tume ti­tled Uni­ty. For good mea­sure, Stealth Tech cap­tured Male In­di­vid­ual with Mahin­dra Har­ry­deosingh por­tray­ing Teepee, while Resh­ma Sook­nanan took the prize of Fe­male In­di­vid­ual with White Buf­fa­lo.

Band­leader Bridglal was thrilled to re­peat as Cou­va Band of the Year cham­pi­ons.

“It is a won­der­ful achieve­ment to win back-to-back ti­tles, es­pe­cial­ly as the band took the ma­jor prizes as well. It is re­al­ly a com­bi­na­tion of hard work and good prepa­ra­tion from the man­age­ment and, in­deed, all the mas­quer­aders. We al­so have a team of very cre­ative de­sign­ers,” ex­plained Bridglal, who de­signed the King of the Bands cos­tume. Oth­er band de­sign­ers were his daugh­ter Maris­sa Bridglal, who de­signed the sec­tion cos­tumes, Karan Sankar, Ker­ron Ram­sa­roop, Avinash Rame­sar and Navin­dra Kr­ish­na.

Cou­va Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee chair­man Ram­c­hand Ra­jbal Maraj said this year’s Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions in Cou­va were out­stand­ing, with mas­sive crowds at­tend­ing at all shows.

“The stan­dard of the spe­cif­ic events were of a high qual­i­ty with a safe Car­ni­val en­vi­ron­ment through­out the six days of the fes­tiv­i­ties,” he said.

“The on­ly sour was struck on Mon­day night when the po­lice shut down the show with three bands wait­ing to go on stage. Oth­er­wise, the po­lice pres­ence was es­sen­tial in en­sur­ing a safe Car­ni­val. I must thank the pub­lic for their great sup­port of Cou­va Car­ni­val and our stake­hold­ers for their in­valu­able con­tri­bu­tions.”

Cou­va Pa­rade of the Bands Re­sults

Band of the Year

Stealth Tech Lim­it­ed Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee - Re­turn of the Red In­di­ans

King of the Bands

1. Ja­son Ram­nath - The Grand Ca­noe

2. Mar­lon Fran­cis - Fire Down Be­low

3. Keifer William McMil­lan

Queen of the Bands

1. Ra­jshri Ram­sa­roop - Uni­ty

2. Dawn Fran­cois - Wind Dancer

3. Kaaya William McMil­lan - Coral Fan­ta­sy

In­di­vid­ual Male

Mahin­dra Har­ry­deosingh

In­di­vid­ual Fe­male

Resh­ma Sook­nanan

Tra­di­tion­al Mas

1. D Orig­i­nal Jab Jab - Danc­ing War­riors (Ronald Al­fred)