The songs played dur­ing kid­dies Car­ni­val are usu­al­ly a good in­di­ca­tor of who the fron­trun­ners for Road March will be.

Famalay by Machel Mon­tano, Skin­ny Fab­u­lous & Bun­ji Gar­lin was the lead­ing con­tender at the Re­pub­lic Bank Ju­nior Pa­rade of Bands at South Quay, Port-of-Spain and the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, yes­ter­day.

Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller’s song Sa­van­nah Grass was sec­ond and while he is not el­i­gi­ble for road march, new­ly crowned 2019 Pow­er So­ca win­ner Hol­lice Mapp BKA Mr Kil­la run­away song, Run With It was the third choice played to ac­com­pa­ny the ju­nior mas­quer­aders by the road truck dee­jays.

The young mas­quer­aders took ad­van­tage of the bril­liant sun­shine as they jumped up and pa­rad­ed in their bright and colour­ful cos­tumes in front of the judges and ap­pre­cia­tive au­di­ence at South Quay.

Big Top Fun! by Lil Mas­quer­aders was the first band to take the road at South Quay around 8:35 am.

Our Pride of Trin­ba­go by Hott Stuff Pro­mo­tions daz­zled with their in­tri­cate kings and queens in­di­vid­ual cos­tumes that can ri­val ‘big mas’ por­tray­als.

Tek Me…H back!! By St Mar­garets Boys’ An­gli­can School ex­hib­it­ed the spir­it of Car­ni­val as the young mas­quer­aders ‘felt’ the mu­sic, danc­ing and sync­ing the song Famalay to their old-time Car­ni­val char­ac­ters.

A tod­dler in a red colour match­ing pram as a sec­tion of the band was al­so play­ing mas be­ing guid­ed by a pre-teen mas­quer­ad­er.

Rain be­gan to fall at the Sa­van­nah around 10:30 am, but it did not put a damper on the spir­its of the young rev­ellers as they were en­er­gised by the mu­sic, crowds, and show­ers.

Car­ni­val is colour is a well-known cliché, but this doesn’t ap­ply to Cheryl Cain De­signs band, Ah Tri­ni Sa­fari. The colours were vi­brant and rich for the band’s or­ange ocelots, flu­o­res­cent green igua­nas, scar­let flamin­goes, mul­ti-coloured macaws, and earth-hued brown deer.

Cul­ture, Gen­der and the Arts Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, who gave the open­ing ad­dress at the Sa­van­nah said chil­dren’s mas was the purest ex­pres­sion of T&T Car­ni­val. She said it was an ex­cel­lent way to build pa­tri­o­tism among the coun­try’s young cit­i­zens who re­quired self-love to do the im­por­tant work of na­tion-build­ing.

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia, who was al­so at the pa­rade in the Sa­van­nah said there was par­tic­i­pa­tion by a large num­ber of schools. He said schools served as an in­cu­ba­tor for Car­ni­val and mas. Gar­cia said one of the things that he was im­pressed with was the chil­dren par­tic­i­pat­ed and en­joyed them­selves with­out any in­de­cen­cy and vul­gar­i­ty.

When asked about a de­cline of mas work­shops in schools, he said it was the min­istry's re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to en­sure Car­ni­val re­mained alive and there were se­nior of­fi­cials at the event who would be re­port­ing to the min­istry what can be used en­hance and nur­ture cul­ture and Car­ni­val his­to­ry in schools.