Af­ter two years of re­stric­tions and lock­downs, ease from the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic comes at a time when this coun­try has start­ed prepar­ing to cel­e­brate a ma­jor mile­stone.

Mere months be­fore Au­gust 31, 2022, when Trinidad and To­ba­go will com­mem­o­rate its 60th year of in­de­pen­dence, COVID cas­es and deaths be­gan de­creas­ing.

As a re­sult of what some are call­ing pan­dem­ic fa­tigue, many Trin­bag­o­ni­ans are not tak­ing the forth­com­ing cel­e­bra­tions for grant­ed and Cae­sar’s Army has an event to help them cel­e­brate.

“Now is the time that we have to see some pos­i­tive, now is the time to see some light,” Cae­sar’s Army Ltd CEO Jules So­bion said yes­ter­day.

Evok­ing the emo­tions cit­i­zens felt six decades ago and merg­ing them with the free­dom par­ty­go­ers feel now, Cae­sar’s Army will host in.de.paint.dance, a beach J’Ou­vert event, on the morn­ing of In­de­pen­dence Day at Tyri­co Bay.

“This year, in de paint is very spe­cial to the na­tion and our pa­trons, as we cel­e­brate it un­der the icon­ic theme and the call to ac­tion to that is ‘I am Icon­ic,’” mar­ket­ing and com­mu­ni­ca­tion lead Elorne Dun­can said of the event.

Dun­can said the dé­cor and food at the 13-year-old event will all rep­re­sent the red, white, and black and so will the per­for­mances, but he did not want to give away the sur­pris­es.

“This is a true ex­pres­sion of who we are as a peo­ple, some peo­ple may want to say it’s just a fete but re­al­ly and tru­ly is peo­ple ex­press­ing their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right as a peo­ple,” he said.

How­ev­er, his boss, So­bion, re­vealed that for the first time, they were able to get Kes the Band for the event.

“It al­ways used to be clash­ing with Not­ting Hill (Car­ni­val) and I was nev­er able to catch him, but some­how for the 60th an­niver­sary, we were able to so­lid­i­fy him and even with him be­ing in­clud­ed in the cast, we are al­so try­ing to make it even more icon­ic by com­ple­ment­ing him,” he said.

Sh­erys­sa Gowrie said plan­ning for the event, which will run from 2 am to 8 am at Tyri­co Beach on Au­gust 31, be­gan months be­fore. How­ev­er, she said they are still mon­i­tor­ing the COVID-19 cas­es and mon­ey­pox.

“We’re still go­ing by the reg­u­la­tions, as much as they can in Jou­vert…I think every­body will be in their own lit­tle sec­tions,” Gowrie said.

Brand ac­count man­ag­er Brit­tney John­son en­cour­aged par­ty­go­ers to car­pool where nec­es­sary.

“We al­so have part­ner­ships with some of the rideshare ser­vices you can al­ways get that, at the event there is se­cure park­ing,” she said.

John­son said there will be a heavy se­cu­ri­ty pres­ence at the venue and life­guards to pro­tect those who want to bathe in the sea af­ter­wards.

Up to one month ago, the Life­guard Ser­vice Di­vi­sion said there were no life­guards as­signed to Tyri­co Beach.

“As I said, safe­ty is a top pri­or­i­ty,” Dun­can added.

So­bion said he has slowed down since his daugh­ter was born but out of all the events, or as he calls them “icon­ic ex­pe­ri­ences” they host, in.de.paint.dance is his favourite and al­ways will be.

This is be­cause at 6 o’clock in the morn­ing when the sun is about to rise, the Na­tion­al An­them will be played.

So­bion said dur­ing that time, all that is seen is to­tal uni­ty and to­geth­er­ness as every­one fo­cus­es their at­ten­tion on the stage and sings proud­ly.

“To me, that is the most mag­i­cal mo­ment I have ever ex­pe­ri­enced in gen­er­al in life,” he said.