SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shal­iza.has­sanali

@guardian.co.tt

There was an ex­plo­sion of colour, splen­dour and cre­ativ­i­ty at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, as hun­dreds of chil­dren par­tic­i­pat­ed in the T&T Red Cross So­ci­ety (TTRCS) Chil­dren’s Car­ni­val 2025. Pres­i­dent of TTRCS Jill De Bourg said this year’s Car­ni­val was in good hands, as the so­ci­ety has seen an in­crease in chil­dren’s reg­is­ter­ing com­pared to 2024. The theme for this year’s event was “Eu­pho­ria of Mas”.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia af­ter her wel­come ad­dress to pa­trons, spon­sors, and vol­un­teers, De Bourg said the goal was to bring back the pas­sion, spir­it, beau­ty, essence and love in­to chil­dren’s mas.

“What I can say is that we have a lot more reg­is­tra­tions than we had last year. So it means we have a lot more chil­dren out this year. This is where in­vest­ments need to be placed.” In 2024, the TTRCS had 283 reg­is­tra­tions com­pared to the 345 chil­dren and bands that reg­is­tered this year.

Against the back­drop of the cre­ativ­i­ty and crafts­man­ship that was show­cased, De Bourg said quite a few of the band lead­ers de­signed the cos­tumes from scratch. A to­tal of 36 small, medi­um and large bands par­tic­i­pat­ed in the com­pe­ti­tion. De Bourg said they would like to see a space where new de­sign­ers can emerge.

“I would love to see Lost Tribe de­sign a chil­dren’s mas (band). I would love to see more of the adult bands build­ing out that chil­dren’s space. Our chil­dren are not just the present. They are the fu­ture.” The event saw ba­bies in arms and boys and girls up to age 17 por­tray­ing eye-catch­ing and splen­did cos­tumes as they danced and pranced to the beat of the in­fec­tious so­ca on stage.

Machel Mon­tano’s Pardy was a favourite among the lit­tle ones, as they screamed to the top of their voic­es, “We de­serve a pardy. Let we pardy on the road­way.” While there was a high­er pres­ence of chil­dren at the sa­van­nah, the turnout of pa­trons in the North Stand was poor.

How­ev­er, along the tracks where the bands had been lined to make their way on stage, there was a bee­hive of spec­ta­tors and par­ents look­ing on at the cos­tumes on dis­play. Asked what the TTRCS can do to get the spec­ta­tors in­to the stand, De Bourg said they have been try­ing mar­ket­ing strate­gies. “We can talk and do PR. We can com­mu­ni­cate, and we can cre­ate this ex­pe­ri­ence. If you walk down the track and you see the spon­sors’ en­gage­ment with chil­dren and par­ents...that is the sto­ry that has to be told. When you see the chil­dren on stage hav­ing a (good) time ... that is the sto­ry that you have to tell in bring­ing peo­ple back to the sa­van­nah to see chil­dren’s mas.”

The TTRCS’ an­nu­al event is spon­sored by the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts and cor­po­rate T&T.