Minshall's Mas Pieta wins Band of the Year

The Peter Minshall-designed Mas Pieta presented by Kinetic Mas grabbed the Large Band of the Year title as well as Overall Band of the Year. The band got the Large Band of the Year title downtown as well.

The National Carnival Commission’s (NCC) Parade of the Bands results were announced on Wednesday at the NCC VIP Lounge, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain.

Mas Pieta got 1347 points while Ronnie and Caro’s The Serengeti placed second with 1311 points. The Lost Tribe’s Anasi placed third with 1289 points.

Kinetic Mas' bandleader Peter Samuel told Newsday that he felt very satisfied and elated not for himself but for Minshall.

He said Minshall had been behind the scenes doing his thing very quietly and had become very despondent with the way Carnival had become.

“And this has been years of me trying to get him to come back into the mas, to tell him that ‘You’re still very much appreciated out there, if he was to do a work for TT, which he did.”

“And for me it was total enjoyment. It was a lot of long hard hours because for those who don’t know I also helped produced Etienne and Friends Brass Mas on Monday. To be doing two Carnival bands out of the same mas camp but it was very rewarding,” Samuel said.

He added that what he was most happy about with the titles was that they would show Minshall that he was appreciated and loved in TT “where he will continue to do bands in the future.”

“Initially, everybody was saying this is his last band, his last band but I think after this that will give him the impetus to continue doing this and continue doing what he does best.”

Samuel said the band had just over 700 masquerders even though people felt that there were 1000 to 1500 people in the band.

“He knows how to design a costume, to give movement. And to have that movement you have to have space. When I tell people we had just over 700 masqueraders people don’t believe me.

“But it's all about the kinetic movement of people being able to play the mas. We were able to give the people that room.”

The band held an event on Wednesday to celebrate the workers behind the scene.

K2K Alliance and Partners got its sixth Medium Band of the year title. The twins Karen and Kathy Norman congratulated all of this year’s winners. The band’s 2020 presentation The Greatest Show (Welcome to the Circle Called Life) got 1340 points.

In second place was Image Nation’s Glorious with 1177 points and third was Exousia Mas’s The Crucible with 1172 points.

K2K was also the 2019 Overall Band of the Year.

“It is the sixth year in a row and we feel truly honoured and blessed. At the end of the day as we always say we have to thank the masqueraders for supporting.

“The Carnival season was very hectic for the band because we also had a queen. As well as trying to manoeuvre through the whole Carnival experience. So we really want to thank the masquerders and the team because without both of those guys there is no us,” they said.

Asked about not being overall band of the year winners, the Normans said it is always great if you are able to get the two but congratulated the winners of the overall band of the year, Mas Pieta.

“It is not a failure. It just means second time around you just have to come back fighting,” the Normans said.