Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The fourth an­nu­al To­ba­go Car­ni­val burst with colour as thou­sands of mas­quer­aders and spec­ta­tors flood­ed the streets be­hind bands like Fog An­gels, Icon­ic Mas, Bago Limers, and Jade Mon­key. Paint, mud, oil, and pow­der blend­ed with the rain, but noth­ing could damp­en the mood. So­ca thun­dered, rev­ellers chipped, and the is­land erupt­ed in­to pure cel­e­bra­tion.

Care­ful crowd con­trol en­sured the safe­ty of every­one, with des­ig­nat­ed routes, bar­ri­ers, and se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel on alert.

There was a brief pow­er out­age along part of the route at the start of the morn­ing, which left some sec­tions in dark­ness. But the pa­rade rolled. To­ba­go Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Dex­ter Sandy said, “J’Ou­vert start­ed off on time. A lot of en­er­gy, a lot of bands on the road. The weath­er is great. The whole Car­ni­val is safe. I’m re­al­ly glad to see us out here this morn­ing and en­joy­ing our­selves.”

On the out­age, Sandy said, “Nah, the pow­er out­age this morn­ing was a bit un­for­tu­nate. But the drinks were al­ready flow­ing. Mas­quer­aders were al­ready there en­joy­ing them­selves … Next year, we want to see it big­ger and bet­ter.”

Po­lice vis­i­bil­i­ty was high from ear­ly on, with pa­trols at key points and of­fi­cers of the Guard and Emer­gency Branch mov­ing through the crowds. Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro de­scribed the scene as “Pure nice­ness. That’s the eas­i­est way to de­scribe it.” He praised To­ba­go of­fi­cers, say­ing, “Phe­nom­e­nal. I want to of­fer com­men­da­tions to the gold com­man­der and the sil­ver com­man­der. I felt, when I came to To­ba­go to­day, I felt the love, I felt se­cure.”

He al­so as­sessed the on-the-ground op­er­a­tion. “Ex­cel­lent crowd con­trol. Can’t ask for any­thing bet­ter.”

By mid-pa­rade, the po­lice re­port­ed no Car­ni­val-re­lat­ed ar­rests on the route. The Com­mis­sion­er said, “At this point in time, we have no in­for­ma­tion that any­body was ar­rest­ed for any Car­ni­val-re­lat­ed in­ci­dents.” He al­so had a clear mes­sage for would-be trou­ble­mak­ers: “It’s a good thing that you all took the warn­ing of ACP Subero and Snr Supt Earl Elie to keep To­ba­go safe, or else we have ac­com­mo­da­tion for you.”

Across the route, bands brought their own look and feel—Fog An­gels pushed a mas­sive wave of mas­quer­aders; Icon­ic Mas, Jade Mon­key and Bago Limers added tex­ture and style. The rain on­ly added shine to colour­ful wear, mud, and paint. For many on the road­side, it felt like To­ba­go Car­ni­val’s con­fi­dence had grown.

There was tighter man­age­ment, steady se­cu­ri­ty, and the same free­dom to play.

By mid­day, the crowd died down as many rev­ellers head­ed to Crown Point for a beach cool-down.