A happy Renaissance

Bishop Anstey and Trinity East College (BATCE) have another achievement to celebrate. The Trincity schools which share the same compound, hosted their premium all-inclusive Carnival party Renaissance at the school on January 27.

Communication officer at the school Dineil Ignatius Shockness said, "Everything we make at the event funnels back into the schools. It's a fundraiser that helps with all our academic programmes that helps with the development of our children. We have a lot of programmes going on. You can see how it helps, the product of that is we just won seven national scholarships."

Shockness is also the social media/publicity manager for the event.

The event saw the heavy hitters of the season entertaining patrons – Iwer George, Voice, V'ghn, Viking Ding Dong, Dil E Nadan and D' All Stars featuring College Boy Jesse.

Usually by this time of the Carnival season, lovers of soca would have already discussed what songs are the road march contenders. While all the entertainers performed superbly, the song in their 2024 repertoire that may be given consideration for such a title didn't move the audience much.

Iwer George's controversial song Happy People which starts off with a remix of the national anthem, lost momentum when the singer admitted that the Prime Minister's response inspired him to not sing the song. Happy People got mixed reviews around the country. Initially, Iwer stopped singing the song and released another version which included one of the national songs. That idea quickly dimmed. Since then, the soca veteran has been singing Happy People at parties but the responses haven't been favourable.

Voice has two selections that could be considered, both of which are collaborations. ShakeDown which he sang with Boyzie and Carnival Day with Patrice Roberts. Both got favourable responses but it was his song Penthouse that got the crowd in a frenzy and may be considered his best release for the season. His other hit Trinidad Sweet, a collaboration with Grenadian hitmaker V'ghn, has been getting great reviews on the circuit.

BATCE has been using entertainment company Kairi people to plan and promote its event for the second straight year. Kairi people also have several events that they host throughout the year.