In­nis Fran­cis

Kalicha­ran Mas has launched its Car­ni­val 2027 pre­sen­ta­tion with a street-par­ty-themed Rev­el.

Po­ten­tial rev­ellers gath­ered at the Ris­ing Star Restau­rant and Lounge on Oc­to­ber 10 to catch a glimpse of their favourite sec­tions.

The six-sec­tion pre­sen­ta­tion brought the con­cept to life with a stage-side view­ing, af­ter which mod­els took to the com­pound and par­tied to mu­sic pro­vid­ed by a mu­sic truck.

Band leader Ayana Kalicha­ran said that, af­ter years of bring­ing mas to San Fer­nan­do, the band had tried a new con­cept this year by bring­ing on a col­lab­o­ra­tor and up­grad­ing its cos­tumes while keep­ing them af­ford­able.

She said San Fer­nan­do need­ed “young blood” to re­vi­talise mas in the South­land.

Over the years, there has been a de­cline in all as­pects of Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do, in­clud­ing the num­ber of bands, mas­quer­aders and spec­ta­tors. It has been a frus­trat­ing time for band lead­ers, some of whom have stopped pro­duc­ing mas al­to­geth­er.

Kalicha­ran said, “Rev­el Car­ni­val is every­body com­ing to­geth­er to have a nice time. We not say­ing we par­ty­ing or bac­cha­nal, we rev­el­ling. Each cos­tume is a de­pic­tion of Car­ni­val, and we try to bring our vi­brant tone to­geth­er. It is six sec­tions. We have a new per­son, Har­lon Mar­cel; we are wel­com­ing the younger ones to come and show their tal­ents. We are try­ing to en­cour­age that in San Fer­nan­do, be­cause we need young blood in San Fer­nan­do to try and bright­en it up and make it alive again.”

She said the band, now co-man­aged by her hus­band, Ster­lin Ma­hase, and her broth­er, Aaron Kalicha­ran, was con­tin­u­al­ly work­ing on ways to keep cos­tume prices bud­get-friend­ly for San Fer­nan­do mas­quer­aders.

She al­so said the band was adamant about pro­vid­ing mas­quer­aders with good-qual­i­ty prod­ucts at af­ford­able prices.

This year, half of the band is all-in­clu­sive, with high­er-qual­i­ty of­fer­ings that the or­gan­is­ers hope will per­suade young mas­quer­aders to re­main in the South.

Kalicha­ran Mas has been named Band of the Year 32 times in the South and has won the Na­tion­al Queen of the Bands ti­tle twice.

In 2003, moth­er and son made his­to­ry by be­com­ing the first moth­er-and-son duo to win the King and Queen of the Bands ti­tles in San Fer­nan­do in the same year.

The six sec­tions are Kit­sune/Fire and Ice, Red Fren­zy, Mo­men­tum, Royale, Rev­el Ig­nite and Rev­el Run­way.

Ayana com­mend­ed the band’s spon­sors, not­ing that spon­sor­ship had played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the band’s ex­is­tence over the years.