Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

The Ju­nior Pa­rade of the Bands held yes­ter­day at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah was met with ex­cite­ment and praise.

With 96 bands reg­is­tered, an im­pres­sive in­crease from 64 in 2024, the pa­rade show­cased the tal­ent and cre­ativ­i­ty of the young rev­ellers.

The event start­ed on St Vin­cent Street, in the vicin­i­ty of the Cen­tral Bank, then moved on to South Quay, Fred­er­ick Street, and fi­nal­ly the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

There was a mi­nor chal­lenge when the roads had not yet been blocked off by the po­lice; how­ev­er, the pa­rade con­tin­ued with­out de­lay.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Vice Pres­i­dent of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion and Com­mis­sion­er on the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion Ros­alind Gabriel said, “We couldn’t take the chance to wait. We had to have the pa­rade mov­ing be­cause this Sa­van­nah will be hand­ed over to Panora­ma at three o’clock.”

The or­gan­is­ers, with the help of par­ents and mar­shals, en­sured the pa­rade start­ed on time, even though cars were still pass­ing along the route.

How­ev­er, the young rev­ellers did not dis­ap­point!

The streets of Port-of-Spain came alive with a breath­tak­ing dis­play of colour and cre­ativ­i­ty as the next gen­er­a­tion of mas­quer­aders took cen­tre stage.

“We man­aged to leave Port-of-Spain at a very rea­son­able hour for the chil­dren,” she ex­plained.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, a short­er route for the Tiny Tot Bands along Keate Street al­lowed for the pa­rade to reach the Sa­van­nah stage short­ly af­ter 9 am.