Sto­ry, pic­tures by

Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions in To­ba­go cul­mi­nat­ed yes­ter­day with a com­bi­na­tion of tra­di­tion­al mas and the more colour­ful cos­tumes in the Pa­rade of the Bands.

The tra­di­tion­al seg­ment got un­der­way short­ly be­fore noon and fea­tured Tan Tan and Saga Boy, along with Dev­ils, Jab Jabs, Fan­cy Sailors and ac­tors who por­trayed the tra­di­tion­al To­ba­go wed­ding.

The Pa­rade of the Bands kicked off af­ter 2 pm with Blos­som—The Se­cret Gar­den hit­ting the road. This band was an ex­plo­sion of colour and fan­ci­ful cos­tumes.

Icon­ic Mas Gem of the Isles mean­while fea­tured a bevy of beau­ties dressed in cos­tumes that high­light­ed their nat­ur­al beau­ty. The band fea­tured sev­er­al carts pulled by men with ladies danc­ing on top. Some 14 bands were card­ed to ap­pear, in­clud­ing Chez Na­tion, Shades of Nude, Jade Mon­key Faces of To­ba­go, De­laford Black Vikings and Blush the Awak­en­ing. Mas­quer­aders, how­ev­er, com­plained about the long al­most 5-km route that wore many of the play­ers over 50 out by the time they got to the main stage in Scar­bor­ough.

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion chair­man Win­ston Gyp­sy Pe­ters was al­so at the fes­ti­val. Pe­ters praised the J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions but called on the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly to work with the NCC to make the cel­e­bra­tions even big­ger than what is seen else­where.

Sec­re­tary of Tourism, Cul­ture, An­tiq­ui­ties and Trans­porta­tion Tashia Bur­ris said while some im­prove­ments had been made since the in­cep­tion of To­ba­go Car­ni­val in 2022, there is al­ways more room for im­prove­ment.

“I think we were able to end with a cli­max in terms of hav­ing our tra­di­tion­al meet with our con­tem­po­rary,” Bur­ris said.