On J’Ou­vert morn­ing, if you’re hop­ing to watch the mud mas cel­e­bra­tions in Down­town Port-of-Spain, you will be able to watch from the stands for free.

This was con­firmed by coun­cil­lor Stephen Harp­er of the Down­town Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at City Hall on Wednes­day.

“On J’Ou­vert morn­ing, nor­mal­ly there is a cost to utilise the stands. This year, for the first time we’re gonna open up the stands, free of charge to the pub­lic on J’Ou­vert,” said Harp­er.

He said pa­trons us­ing the stand to look at mas on Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day will be charged $120 each.

This means mem­bers of the pub­lic hop­ing to see the May­or’s procla­ma­tion for the open­ing of Car­ni­val, the ole mas and King and Queen of J’Ou­vert com­pe­ti­tions, you will be able to watch it from the com­fort of the stands at no cost.

Chair­man of Down­town Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee Wen­dell Stephen said the down­town judg­ing point along South Quay will be opened two hours ear­li­er than usu­al at 11 am on Car­ni­val Mon­day as the Com­mit­tee learned that af­ter a few years ab­sence some of the coun­try’s biggest bands will re­turn to down­town.

“We have the re­turn of all the big bands to the city of Port-of-Spain and most of them come pret­ty ear­ly,” said al­der­man Stephen, “And of course on Car­ni­val Tues­day we start at 8 am where all the ma­jor bands; large, medi­um, small, mi­ni, they all cross our down­town venue.”

The Down­town judg­ing point will play a part of Sat­ur­day’s Ju­nior Car­ni­val Pa­rade from 8 am, while al­so be­ing a part of the Down­town Com­mit­tee’s own Ju­nior mas com­pe­ti­tion on Sun­day which will see the young rev­ellers pa­rade from the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade to the Down­town stage then on­to the Pic­cadil­ly stage as a part of the East Port-of-Spain com­pe­ti­tion.

The com­mit­tee is al­so of­fer­ing a spe­cial pack­age for fam­i­lies over the week­end, as par­ents and guardians who bring four chil­dren will pay the cost of three chil­dren.