SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Joy over­flowed on the main stage at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain dur­ing the Pa­rade of the Bands yes­ter­day.

Out in their thou­sands, mas­quer­aders jumped, waved and wined as the “Great­est Show on Earth” re­turned.

Bands be­gan cross­ing the stage and dis­play­ing their cos­tumes for the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCCs) judges around 9.30 am.

By noon, mas­quer­aders from Ron­nie and Caro, The Lost Tribe, Res­onate, Pa­parazzi, Yu­ma and Trib­al Con­nec­tion’s Cul­tur­al Pro­mo­tions had all crossed the stage.

As they jumped and danced in a fren­zy, Guardian Me­dia was able to speak to some mas­quer­aders.

Tr­isha Taitt, a Trinida­di­an liv­ing in New York, said she was ec­sta­t­ic to be back for Car­ni­val.

“Oh my God, it’s been amaz­ing, like, no place like home, it’s in­de­scrib­able be­ing back on the Sa­van­nah grass, thank you for be­ing T&T,” Taitt said.

An­oth­er New York­er, who didn’t give his name, said he will def­i­nite­ly re­turn for Car­ni­val 2023.

“It’s amaz­ing, this is my first time out here with Yu­ma and I’ll be back next year,” he said.

One Jab Jab mas­quer­ad­er ex­pressed his joy that he was fi­nal­ly able to par­tic­i­pate in Car­ni­val again.

“We hav­ing a time, you know how it goes, Car­ni­val was locked down so long and we didn’t re­al­ly have the time we want­ed,” he said.

One woman, who de­clared her­self a “Pana-Tri­ni,” said she too was over­joyed at be­ing able to play mas once more. She said she is mar­ried to a Trinida­di­an man and has played mas ten times.

Nailah Black­man and Skin­ny Fab­u­lous’ “Come Home” and Bun­ji Gar­lin’s “Hard Fete” dom­i­nat­ed in al­most equal mea­sure in the Road March ti­tle race as the bands crossed the stage.

Guardian Me­dia caught up with vet­er­an mas­man Ron­nie McIn­tosh, as his band, Ron­nie and Caro, crossed the stage.

McIn­tosh said the ex­cite­ment from the mas­quer­aders was pal­pa­ble.

“It’s great to see the en­er­gy from the mas­quer­aders, they are the most im­por­tant ones, I saw it to­day and I saw the ex­pres­sion on their faces, like ‘Amen’,” he said.

McIn­tosh said de­spite dif­fi­cult eco­nom­ic cir­cum­stances, the num­ber of mas­quer­aders in his band was not af­fect­ed.

“Our num­bers are ba­si­cal­ly the same, 1,000 peo­ple, a lit­tle less or a lit­tle more, peo­ple are mak­ing choic­es right now,” he said.

In 2020, his band’s pre­sen­ta­tion, “The Serengeti,” placed sec­ond in the Band of the Year com­pe­ti­tion.

Asked about his hopes for 2023, McIn­tosh said, “We nor­mal­ly obey the rules, come across in sec­tions or­der­ly and wait for the re­sults but the most im­por­tant thing is the mas­quer­aders.”