Gyasi Mer­rique

Se­nior Re­porter

gyasi.mer­rique@cnc3.co.tt

Trinidad and To­ba­go ush­ered in the New Year un­der a cloud of un­cer­tain­ty yes­ter­day, as the gov­ern­ment’s No­vem­ber 2 de­ci­sion to ex­tend the State of Emer­gency (SoE) for an ad­di­tion­al three months cast a shad­ow over the up­com­ing Car­ni­val sea­son.

De­spite lin­ger­ing ten­sions and ques­tions over na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, the mood at the year’s first of­fi­cial fête – Day One, host­ed by Il­lu­sions Mas at Ho­tel Nor­mandie, St Ann’s – was one of un­abashed cel­e­bra­tion.

Hun­dreds of par­ty­go­ers ar­rived from as ear­ly as 8 am, show­ing an im­pres­sive fa­mil­iar­i­ty with the sea­son’s ear­ly hits, mixed by some of the coun­try’s lead­ing DJs, as hu­mid­i­ty added to the au­then­tic car­ni­val at­mos­phere.

The event in­vit­ed at­ten­dees to dress in choco­late and cream, and most com­plied, cre­at­ing a vi­su­al­ly strik­ing scene.

As the day pro­gressed and lead­ing artistes took to the stage, any sense of na­tion­al un­ease seemed to fade amid the mu­sic, danc­ing, and fes­tive en­er­gy.

Sev­er­al per­form­ers en­cour­aged rev­ellers to im­merse them­selves ful­ly in the six-week car­ni­val sea­son ahead.

Akhen­aton “Yung Bred­da” Lewis told the crowd, “Every­thing starts with you. Car­ni­val be­gins with us. We are the rea­son car­ni­val ex­ists, you un­der­stand? It is with us; it is with­in us. You’re sup­posed to feel it on the in­side, and if you aren’t feel­ing it, then that’s on you.”

Tevin Hart­man echoed the sen­ti­ment, say­ing, “For me, I wouldn’t say there is a cloud be­cause at the end of the day, Trinidad and To­ba­go is a blessed place. If you’re from here, if you’ve been here, it’s a bless­ing to be a part of this cul­ture. So, I wouldn’t say there’s a cloud over this sea­son; how­ev­er, we just have to keep do­ing what we have to do and en­joy­ing the cul­ture be­cause the cul­ture is we and we is the cul­ture.”

Shereese “Mela Caribe” Ed­mund added, “Hon­est­ly, the way that I feel, cloud or not, we are Trin­bag­o­ni­ans, and that shouldn’t mat­ter to us. We need to make the best of what we have and just thank God for life and just do what we need to do to spread our cul­ture to the rest of the world. Fo­cus­ing on the neg­a­tive doesn’t make any sense. Life is worth liv­ing for now. Be thank­ful for life in 2026. Every­thing else will fol­low af­ter. That’s how I feel, hon­est­ly.”

Ani­ka “Ani­ka Berry” De­ber­ry al­so shared her pos­i­tive out­look:

“I try not to get sucked in and go down a rab­bit hole in the news. But I just wish the best for the sit­u­a­tion. If there is a cloud, I’m not feel­ing it to­day. So let’s just keep hav­ing fun. For­get any cloud. It’s all pos­i­tiv­i­ty. I just can’t wait to par­ty with every­body and per­form and show every­body what Ani­ka Berry can do.”

De­spite the un­cer­tain­ty sur­round­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and the ex­tend­ed SoE, Day One demon­strat­ed that car­ni­val spir­it re­mains alive and vi­brant, as cit­i­zens em­braced mu­sic, dance, and cul­ture to ring in 2026.