Teja's DNA favourite for Junior Parade of the Bands

If there was a Junior Carnival Road March, it would be Mical Teja’s (Williams) runaway hit DNA.

The song was the most frequently played as thousands of costumed children danced across the stage at the Junior Parade of the Bands at Carnival City at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain on Saturday.

Carnival Contract by Bunji Garlin would be second, with Nailah Blackman and Lyrikal’s Best Self and Patrice Roberts’ Anxiety roadmix placing third.

At the start of the parade National Carnival Commission chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters told the children playing mas was a beautiful and powerful experience.

“Remember that it is your time to enjoy yourselves. It is your time to be happy. It is your time to show the world where our Carnival resides – it resides in the children.”

TT Carnival Bands Association vice president Rosalind Gabriel stressed the Junior Parade of the Band was a celebration of youth, culture and vibrant creativity, and wished them joy, camaraderie and many good memories.

From 12.30-2 pm, 36 bands crossed the stage at the savannah. Other than two long gaps between bands near the start of the parade, bands moved smoothly and quickly across the stage. In fact, some of the bands barely spent time on the stage, not getting much time to jump up before officials were gently asking them to leave and make way for another band.

Yet, the move was understandable as the parade, scheduled for 9 am, began at 10.30 am. Also, there was a total of 71 registered bands and the National Panorama Finals were expected to begin at the savannah at 7pm.

Last year, Pan Trinbago president Beverly Ramsey-Moore blamed the late start of the Panorama Finals on the Junior Parade, saying the parade’s late conclusion on Carnival Saturday delayed a security sweep which delayed the start of the pan competition.

She recommended the NCC find a way to deal with the “clash” of having both competitions at the same venue on the same day.

While Peters said he would consider a proposal to relocate the Junior Parade in the future, Gabriel said she would oppose any move to do so saying children needed their time too.

As expected, the mas was very colourful and the children seemed to enjoy their brief stints on stage. There were traditional mas characters such as the moko jumbie, dame Lorraine, blue devils and fancy Indians. There were also representations of nature as well as cultural individuals, dances and places.

Ela’s Creative Collusions’ presentation D Sun Flower Bliss gave the audience cute children dressed as sunflowers, while the Trinity Carnival Foundation presented Blue – Another Conversation With Glavcona with some masqueraders doing actual choreography.

Paramin RC Primary School presented Colours of the Rainbow and its Carnival Queen stood out. She wore a multi-coloured crown and a white dress with what looked like different coloured paint running down different areas of the dress. The backpack consisted of a large artist palette and paintbrush with drops and splashes of paint surrounding it.

DMC Kids Mas Band’s presentation Diversity – A Global Journey was truly a demonstration of the theme. Each of the many sections took inspiration from different parts of the world with the very different costumes and colours making each section stand out.

Anthony Stanislaus, nine, played with Zebapique Productions in the Fins of Peace section. He said he liked his colourful costumes but it was hot so he drank a lot of water. He also liked crossing the savannah stage as it was more exciting than parading on the streets.

“We had fun running and jumping and spending time with each other,” he said.

Chelsea Anna Britton, nine, played with Bois Canot Junior Carnival Band, stressing it was the third year she was playing mas and she was ready go play again on Sunday for Downtown Carnival.

“You get to have fun and jump up and listen to soca music. I love it! And crossing the stage is more fun because people watch you and you end up on TV and social media.”

Audience member Alfonso Garnier said he the found both the production of the event and the costumes to be professionally done.

“I enjoyed the way the children enjoyed themselves. They jumped up, everything was well done,” he said.

One woman from Tobago said she made the trip to Trinidad specifically to see the children play mas even though she did not know anyone masquerading. She said she enjoyed the parade except for the two long lags between bands when there was nothing to view on stage.

“The parade was good, as usual. I just like mas. I like Carnival.”