Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

An idea con­cep­tu­alised many years ago is ex­pect­ed to be tru­ly awak­ened when the fifth an­nu­al To­ba­go Car­ni­val gets un­der­way from Oc­to­ber 30 to No­vem­ber 1.

The fes­ti­val was launched in grand style on Fri­day evening with a beach par­ty fea­tur­ing steel­pan, mud, tra­di­tion­al car­ni­val char­ac­ters and so­ca su­per­stars.

A heavy down­pour around 6.30 pm failed to stop thou­sands from flood­ing Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park for a taste of what’s in store for the 2026 fes­ti­val.

Pop­u­lar bands used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case their 2026 cos­tumes as they get ready to hit the road once more.

The theme for this year’s cel­e­bra­tion is Mud, Mas and Mu­sic.

While an earth­quake was felt in some parts of Trinidad, so­ca star Bun­ji Gar­lin had his ground troops mov­ing in all di­rec­tions as he opened his set with his 2025 mega hit Car­ry It.

The launch turned in­to a Hard Fete as the for­mer Road March cham­pi­on went through his ex­ten­sive reper­toire.

Fel­low so­ca star and his wife, Fay-Ann-Lyons-Al­varez, took com­mand of the mud crew, as she com­mand­ed one of its mem­bers to drop on the ground and roll.

Ear­li­er, Na­dia Bat­son had the crowd groov­ing and singing along to her many hits, such as Every Time and Mar­ket.

Tourism Sec­re­tary Zor­isha Hack­ett wel­comed the large crowd, say­ing To­ba­go is launch­ing a move­ment and an­oth­er chap­ter in its rich cul­tur­al his­to­ry.

“We stand as proof that small is­lands can car­ry big dreams, bold vi­sion and glob­al am­bi­tion,” she said.

“To­ba­go Car­ni­val be­gan as just an idea, but to­day it is an iden­ti­ty. It be­gan as a con­ver­sa­tion, but to­day it is on the cal­en­dar of events.”

As she paid homage to the pi­o­neers of the fes­ti­val, she said they plant­ed the seed and car­ried the cul­ture un­til the world took no­tice.

“Cul­ture sur­vives when peo­ple choose to pro­tect it,” she said, hail­ing the pan­men, cos­tume mak­ers, artistes, mud mas bands, de­sign­ers and cul­tur­al ar­ti­sans.

She said dur­ing the Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val, ho­tels are at ca­pac­i­ty, busi­ness­es are thriv­ing and taxi dri­vers are busy trans­port­ing pa­trons to the var­i­ous events.

“Young peo­ple, you find new path­ways in the cre­ative in­dus­try.

“That is the pow­er of car­ni­val when cul­ture meets com­merce, and that is the pow­er of tourism when it is root­ed in iden­ti­ty.”

To­ba­go Fes­ti­vals Com­mis­sion Ltd (TF­CL) CEO Kern Cow­an said the en­er­gy of the vil­lagers has awak­ened along­side the cre­ativ­i­ty of the or­ange econ­o­my.

“Let us think big­ger, let us dream big­ger,” he said.

He said the com­mis­sion’s aim is to cre­ate a prod­uct that not on­ly cel­e­brates cul­ture but al­so cre­ates op­por­tu­ni­ty and leaves a lega­cy for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.