#Addictive

MANY of us know that it’s easy to get “hooked” to TT’s Carnival and its soca. Working from this perspective Kalicharan Carnival launched its 2019 presentation, #Addictive, on Saturday at Twin Walls, Gulf View and presented seven sections.

The band’s concept is built around social media, candies and Carnival’s addictive nature.

Band manager Aaron Kalicharan said, “We are following the trends of social media. Where social media is actually the in thing. That is why we started the name of the band with the hashtag symbol that is trending. That is not only the youths but what everyone uses now.”

The band chose #Addictive as its name “because we wanted a name that had a twist meaning to it. People, but especially Trinis, have a sweet tooth that we love and people love their candies and everything, so we wanted to use the word addictive because people’s perspective on the word addictive and addiction is usually a bad thing,” Kalicharan said.

The seven sections have been built around different types of candies. It’s not just the sweets you’re used to but “with globalisation, everything is not Trini, everything is not Caribbean, everything is not American, so we just went with a wide range of candies.”

“Some of the names are not regular candies and typical things that come to mind but it is stuff people indulge in and crave.”

The concept also achieves one of the band’s main goals to bring colour back to Carnival. “We went with a lot of bright colours, a lot of fun names and a fun theme. We were able to capture both a young crowd and a mature crowd. Once something is trending, the youths jump on board. That is why the hashtag came in.”

He said the costumes are not just “bikini and beads but we have a variety of design. You can get big feathers, small feathers. We have our fully-clothed section, where there are no feathers and the costume is made of white cloth and air-brushed patterns.”

Registration opens on Friday. For more info: Facebook