With cloud of terror threat festivities beginCarnival come back again!

TERROR threat or no terror threat the annual two day Carnival celebrations kick off from today.

Carnival Monday festivities officially begin with the launch of Carnival and J’Ouvert celebrations at South Quay, Port of Spain, and Tobago at 4 am.

Also early is the Groovy Soca/J’Ouvert Bomb Steelpan Competitions which had been moved from City Hall to South Quay.

The Traditional Parade, which had been moved from Carnival Sunday to Today, kicks off at the Queen’s Park Savannah at 9am while the Conventional Parade of Bands starts at 1pm. The Tobago Senior Parade of the Bands at Scarborough starts at 11am while Tobago Monday Night Mas will be held at 8pm.

For Carnival Tuesday there will be pan on the road, las lap and mas across all regions of Trinidad and Tobago. The Conventional Parade of the Bands in Port of Spain and the Tobago Senior Parade of the Bands both get started at 7am.

The annual Road March winner will also be crowned and eight-time Road March winner Machel Montano appears to be a favourite with his song Soca Kingdom, a collaboration with nine-time Road March winner SuperBlue (Austin Lyons); the still undefeated ten-time winner is the grandmaster Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts). Other Road March favourites this year include Patrice Roberts Sweet for Days and Iwer George’s Savannah. Last year the Ultimate Rejects featuring Maximus Prime destroyed the competition with their mega hit Full Extreme.

Champs of Steel Plus will end the Carnival calendar on Saturday at the Queen’s Park Savannah at 8pm. The calendar of events is available on the National Carnival Commission website and is subject to change. Please see ncctt.org for further information.

Carnival 2018 has the cloud of a terror threat hanging over it after police reported a threat to disrupt Carnival and US soldiers and local law enforcement engaged in anti-terror raids on Thursday following a tip off about a plan to bomb the US Embassy between Monday and Tuesday.