Colour, revelry in Scarborough

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

The Parade of Bands in Scarborough on Tuesday brought down the curtain on Carnival 2020 celebrations.

Off to a late and slow start, the first band to cross the stage at 2.45 pm was Happy Lost Sailors, led by Robert Marshall.

Happy Lost Sailors rolled into the Market Square judging point on Wilson Road with a makeshift boat. This band consisted of mostly mature players, which also included festivals director at the Tobago Festivals Commission George Leacock, all chipping to the music.

This made way for the sea of colour that flowed as a number of bands graced the stage including LueAnn Melville’s Caribbean Connections, which consisted of five sections all representing mas in different Caribbean islands; Spice Mas Grenada, Barbados Kadooment now known as Barbados Crop over, Vincy Mas, Bacchanal Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago the spirit of Carnival. The 150-member band jumped and pranced. Preceding was Candace Chang-Sandy’s Stoute Next Generation with their presentation of Tobago Beyond Beautiful, comprising three sections.

The revellers in Tele Cruz’s Fog Angels Mas in Paradise came with high-energy impressing the audience with their entertaining, theatrical performance. Also playing with the band was soca star Rodney “Benjai” Le Blanc.

Erlan Clarke’s Zain Carnival wowed spectators with their portrayal titled À MA MÉRE, which means “to my mother” in Swahili, as they presented three sections: Zulu, Samburu and Ndebele. Jumping in this band was top soca singer Adana Roberts in the section Samburu.

Other bands to cross the stage were the Tobago Drama Guild with their presentation of Fire in yuh Wire, Yvonne Lindow James’ Paradise Lost, Dianne McCrimmon’s the Gathering of Nations and Sherrel McPherson’s Micro Warriors Vision, Astra Winchester’s The Enchanted Forest, Yvonne George’s Splendour of the Deep, Leon Prescod’s Back to Africa, Beverly Riley’s Colouring this Life, Vernella Alleyne Toppin’s We Kulture We Ting, Kishawna Sebro’s A Tribute to Lord Nelson, Jeanette Leith Carrington’s the Lakotas Dreamers, as well as Janelle Eastman’s City of Gems.

The bands were all judged on creativity, humour, authenticity, clarity of theme and overall presentation.

Most of the bands crossed the stage to Neil “Iw­er” George and Kees Dif­f­en­thaller Stage Gone Bad. The song was a clear favourite among bands and masqueraders as they frolicked while crossing the stage.

On Wednesday, the Trinbago Unified Calypsonian Organisation (TUCO) announced the official results namingIwer and Kes as Road March champs. According to the release, their song was played 386 times, while Machel Montano, Iwer and Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle’s Conch Shell placed second with 95 plays and Nadia Batson’s song Fatt was played 89 times.