Ten of T&T’s finest tas­sa groups com­pet­ed for su­prema­cy at the fi­nals of the Prime Min­is­ter’s Best Vil­lage Tro­phy Com­pe­ti­tion, held at Na­pari­ma Bowl in San Fer­nan­do on Au­gust 10.

The at­mos­phere was elec­tric as each group brought their A-game, clad in vi­brant cos­tumes. Drums thun­dered in per­fect uni­son, move­ments were flaw­less­ly syn­chro­nized, and chore­og­ra­phy blend­ed with raw rhythm, cre­at­ing a spec­tac­u­lar cel­e­bra­tion of an­ces­tral pride and cul­tur­al mas­tery.

Best Vil­lage Pro­gramme Man­ag­er Louris Lee-Sing ad­dressed the crowd, prais­ing the per­form­ers’ ded­i­ca­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty.

“I am al­ways ex­cit­ed to come to our fi­nals. This is where you see the best of the best that have en­tered our com­pe­ti­tion,” she said.

Lee-Sing high­light­ed the tremen­dous ef­fort be­hind each per­for­mance, not­ing the count­less hours spent on prepa­ra­tion, cos­tume de­sign, and mu­si­cal arrange­ment for what may on­ly be three to four min­utes on stage.

“It is re­mark­able that our groups put in all this work, all this prepa­ra­tion, these beau­ti­ful cos­tumes, and rou­tines. I thank you for your hard work, your ef­forts, and your in­vest­ment in the cul­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” she added.

She al­so em­pha­sized the long-stand­ing lega­cy of the com­pe­ti­tion.

“We are in our 62nd year of the Best Vil­lage this year of the Prime Min­is­ter’s Best Vil­lage Tro­phy Com­pe­ti­tion, and that is a re­mark­able achieve­ment. We may be the old­est folk fes­ti­val or folk com­pe­ti­tion in the Caribbean, if not the world, and we have a unique prod­uct here at Best Vil­lage.”

What makes the com­pe­ti­tion tru­ly spe­cial, Lee-Sing not­ed, is its in­clu­siv­i­ty.

“Any­one can en­ter. Any­one in the au­di­ence can de­cide, ‘I’m en­ter­ing Best Vil­lage next year. I’m go­ing to sing, I’m go­ing to dance.’ Par­tic­i­pa­tion is open to all, re­gard­less of age—from young peo­ple to the el­der­ly.”

Clos­ing her ad­dress, she cel­e­brat­ed the cul­tur­al har­mo­ny and uni­ty that Best Vil­lage rep­re­sents.

“Some­times we have ten­sion, but at the end of the day, we are a very suc­cess­ful plur­al coun­try. Not many coun­tries can say that with as much eth­nic­i­ty and di­ver­si­ty as we have. For me, the Best Vil­lage is the place where it all comes to­geth­er.”

The re­sults of the com­pe­ti­tion will be an­nounced lat­er.

Groups That Lit Up the Stage: Vic­to­ria East, Robert Vil­lage Hin­du School, Coun­ty Ca­roni South, Au­tora­ma De­si Crew In­ter­na­tion­al (To­ba­go), Ja­bal­li En­ter­tain­ers, Nar­i­va/Ma­yaro, Broth­ers Road Drag­on Boys Tas­sa Group, Pe­ters­field Unit­ed Tas­sa Group, Shoot­ing Stars Tas­sa Group, SR Ide­al The­atre Pro­duc­tion, Tris­tar Tas­sa Group, San­jay Boys Tas­sa Band and Trinidad and To­ba­go Pris­ons Youth Club Move­ment.