Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Not even the rain could damp­en the ex­cite­ment of young mas­quer­aders, as they took over the streets of San Fer­nan­do in their beau­ti­ful cos­tumes yes­ter­day. Mas­quer­aders from 17 chil­dren’s Car­ni­val bands proud­ly dis­played their cos­tumes, as they made their way from the start­ing point at Cir­cu­lar Road to the judg­ing point at Skin­ner Park at Cipero Street.

De­spite a brief af­ter­noon down­pour, the chil­dren of all ages had fun, jump­ing and danc­ing to pop­u­lar so­ca hits as they par­tic­i­pat­ed in the San Fer­nan­do Kid­dies Car­ni­val.

“I like to dance and I like Car­ni­val so much,” said brave six-year-old mas­quer­ad­er Reign Nor­eiga, who por­trayed Queen of the Coral Reef from the Carivog Kids Band.

Band­leader Va­lerie Al­leyne-Nor­eiga said her mas­quer­aders were hap­py to be cross­ing the stage at the re­cent­ly ren­o­vat­ed Skin­ner Park.

“I am so glad to be back at Skin­ner Park with the stage be­cause that is what the chil­dren like, play­ing mas on a stage, in­stead of be­ing on the road,” she said.

Not­ing that her pre­sen­ta­tion was en­ti­tled Gems of T&T, she said the rain did not af­fect them.

Ir­ma Joseph-John, band­leader of Ir­ma & Friends, said her por­tray­al was Sailors of the Caribbean, which de­picts artistes from Ja­maica, Bar­ba­dos, Grena­da and T&T.

“The weath­er was hot, then we got lit­tle show­ers, but we are back in the sun now and we are hap­py,” she said.

The first band to cross the stage was the House of Jacqui with We From San­do. Oth­er bands, in­clud­ing St Brigid’s Girls’ RC School with We Will Rise, and BMan and Lord Street Fush­ion with Wel­come to Wa­ter­world of San Fer­nan­do, al­so as­sem­bled at Skin­ner Park, trans­form­ing the venue in­to a sea of colour, beau­ty and ex­cite­ment. The pop­u­lar song of choice as the mas­quer­aders pa­rad­ed on stage was Mi­cal Te­ja’s DNA.

The event start­ed at 11 am and was sched­uled to end at 6 pm.

Chil­dren’s bands in Port-of-Spain al­so par­tic­i­pat­ed in their fi­nal com­pe­ti­tions.