Jensen La Vende

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

There has been an in­crease in the num­ber of bands par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Down­town Car­ni­val, Port-of-Spain May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne said yes­ter­day.

“The re­sponse has been amaz­ing. We saw an in­crease in reg­is­tra­tion both yes­ter­day and to­day. I know yes­ter­day we had about 73 groups that came through to the judg­ing. To­day is well over 100,” he said.

“We’ve been hav­ing a very suc­cess­ful event so far. The on­ly is­sue that I’m aware of that we had yes­ter­day as you know would have been a mu­sic truck that pulled down an elec­tri­cal line. The fire ser­vices as well as T&T City Po­lice re­spond­ed im­me­di­ate­ly.

“They were able to treat with the is­sue so that the road­way was re­opened. And here at the down­town every­thing has been run­ning quite smooth­ly.”

Some of the chil­dren were seen strug­gling against the wind to put on their best show for the judges on South Quay. This al­so posed a chal­lenge for some of the young mas­quer­aders at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Sat­ur­day.

Armed with cell­phones and col­lapsable chairs, par­ents and spec­ta­tors lined the pa­rade route hop­ing to get the best van­tage points.

On the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, chil­dren who were not play­ing mas had their faces paint­ed.

First-timer Zaria Rigues, 9, said play­ing mas was “great.” She said the best part of the ex­pe­ri­ence was cross­ing the Sa­van­nah stage and she loved danc­ing to GBM Nu­tron and Farmer Nap­py.

An­oth­er first-time mas­quer­ad­er, Je­ni­ah Alex­is, 10, said her favourite song was Yung Bred­da’s The Great­est Bend Over. She said the mu­sic is what mo­ti­vat­ed her on the pa­rade route.