J'Ouvert action in San Fernando

Bands, consisting mainly of revellers outfitted in jerseys of varying colours and armed with bottles of water paint, seem to have overtaken San Fernando’s J’Ouvert celebrations, as out of 24 registered bands, only one traditional ole mas band was listed to cross the High Street, San Fernando judging point yesterday.

And while modern bands seem to increase in both membership and number from year to year, ole mas bands have dwindled to just one solitary band this year - “de Blue boys,” which was only able to muster between 10-15 masqueraders. The band, which crossed the judging point at just before 8 am, played under the banner - “Ah blue with Polly ma.”

The first masquerade dressed in blue coveralls and carrying a blue ‘posey’ or portable bedpan, set the tone with “ah cash it.” He stooped in the middle of the road over the posey and after wining over the bedpan, he got up and puled several blue coloured pieces of cardboard.

He was followed by a masquerader whose placard read, “441 Million to rebuild red house and it still leaking." The masquerader brought a cardboard representation of the Red House and proceeded to “rain” red water on it.

The next masquerader elicited laughter from the large contingent of spectators as he proudly bore a placard which read- “AG fix it…for Renee and Machel” as two other masqueraders strutted in front of the cardboard structure.

But it was the parade of modern mas which seemed to excite the crowd as revellers in band after band, complete with music trucks, pranced in front of the judging point. One band, Dev’s Barber Shop Crew, under the banner ‘Curry tabanca’ boasted a membership of over 2,000 revellers.

Questioned about the seeming decline of the traditional ole mas during a lull between bands, Mayor Junia Regrello said “new trends’ seem to be entering the festivities.

“Well there is some new trends coming into the J’Ouvert, there is modern J’Ouvert and there is still the traditional J’Ouvert and the earth J’Ouvert so we have various categories but if that is what it is as the mas evolves, we give them support and encourage them.”

“I have not seen any number of decrease on any bands so far,’ he said in response to a query whether crime and the spectre of the Covid 19 virus had any impact on spectator attendance.

Regrello also commented on the shift of the main judging point from Harris Promenade bandstand to High Street saying the main factor was the closeness of the San Fernando General and Teaching hospitals to the promenade.

"We had issue with the hospital and the patients being disturbed and those who had surgery so we made an attempt to move and shift the focus from Harris Promenade to High Street.”