JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Technical glitches delay Kings and Queens parade

by

Derek Achong
2346 days ago
20190222

Heavy winds at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah did not prove to be a prob­lem for mas­quer­aders tak­ing part in the Car­ni­val Kings and Queens pre­lim­i­nar­ies on Thurs­day night.

Be­fore the first mas­quer­ad­er crossed the stage in front of the Grand Stand, there were con­cerns about how strong winds would af­fect the com­pe­ti­tion in the ab­sence of the North Stand, which usu­al­ly acts like make-shift wind-break.

The con­cerns did not mat­ter af­ter all as the weath­er on Thurs­day night was most­ly calm un­til late in the com­pe­ti­tion when the last two mas­quer­aders had to en­dure a light driz­zle dur­ing their per­for­mances.

While there were no cos­tume mal­func­tions due to the forces of moth­er na­ture, as has oc­curred in the past years, tech­ni­cal dif­fi­cul­ties from or­gan­is­ers al­most over­shad­owed the show.

The is­sues be­gan as the show com­menced al­most one hour af­ter its sched­uled start time of 7 pm. The light­ing en­gi­neers were still test­ing their equip­ment as pa­trons were still fil­ing in.

When the show did start, sev­er­al mas­quer­aders had to deal with the nu­mer­ous mix-ups with their back­up mu­sic, which per­sist­ed for most of the night.

Cou­pled to­geth­er, the is­sues led to the show fin­ish­ing at al­most 2 am, well af­ter most of the au­di­ence had de­part­ed.

De­spite the peren­ni­al is­sues, for most of the night mas en­thu­si­asts were still treat­ed to a mas­ter-class of Car­ni­val de­sign and the­atri­cal per­for­mance.

The most pop­u­lar song se­lect­ed by mas­quer­aders was clear­ly Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller’s Road March con­tender Sa­van­nah Grass.

Machel Mon­tano’s 2019 al­bum Great­est of All Time (G.O.A.T.) al­so proved to be a pop­u­lar choice with mas­quer­aders se­lect­ing a num­ber of com­po­si­tions, the most pop­u­lar of which was Re­lease, his col­lab­o­ra­tion with US R&B singer Ashan­ti.

The show be­gan with a trib­ute to a vet­er­an com­peti­tor and band­leader Roland St George, who passed away last year.

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) board mem­ber Ros­alind Gabriel in her trib­ute de­scribed him as a true friend and mas icon.

“He de­fined the term mas­man, with a pas­sion for mas mak­ing which saw him pro­duce and com­pete in the King of Car­ni­val com­pe­ti­tion for a record-set­ting 41 con­sec­u­tive years,” she said.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored