Reinventing bat mas

“I never planned for this to be an established band,” says artist Richard “Ashraph” Ramsaran. “Every year I say this is the last time. But the people won’t let me.”

“The people” are the loyal masqueraders who sign up each year with Cat in Bag Productions, the small but lively mas band led by Ashraph with the help of a corps of volunteer collaborators.

Launched in 2009, Cat in Bag has won a reputation for its innovative costumes, often using traditional materials, and its irreverent brand of social and political commentary, which draws on the tradition of old mas.

In 2014, Cat in Bag plans to release a colony of colourful vampire bats into the streets of Port-of-



Headpieces from Cat In Bag’s 2014 presentation Suck It
 are made of papier-maché on wire frames,
 with the help of veteran wire-benders
 Kendall de Peaza and Clyde Bascombe

Spain. Suck It reinterprets traditional bat mas to make a pointed statement about the bloodsucking effect of corruption and graft in contemporary T&T.

The costumes include headpieces made of papier-maché on wire frames, created with the help of veteran wire-benders Kendall de Peaza and Clyde Bascombe.

Suck It follows Cat in Bag’s 2013 band, Sink or Swim, which referenced traditional sailor mas, and previous mas presentations based on several animal characters: chickens, snakes, vultures, and cows.

Entering for the parade of the bands competition since 2010, Cat in Bag has won several prizes each year since then, and attracts a following of masqueraders—many of them creative professionals—looking for a creative, intelligent, and eminently enjoyable alternative to larger and more commercial all-inclusive bands.

The 2014 presentation is Cat in Bag’s biggest yet, with nearly 70 masqueraders registered, while further requests to join continue to stream in via the band’s active Facebook page.

Many of the masqueraders have also put in time at the mas camp, helping make costumes—all of which is documented in a series of online videos shot, edited by Georgia Popplewell, a member of the team of collaborators. Other artists include Shalini Seereeram and Richard Rawlins and editor Nicholas Laughlin.

SOURCE:Trinidad Guardian

Bands still going to Savannah

By Kalifa Clyne

The four large mas bands which will be part of the Socadrome initiative at the Jean Pierre Complex may still head to the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, on Carnival Tuesday. When the National Carnival Commission okayed the initiative last week, it argued that the four bands — Bliss, Harts, Tribe and Yuma — would account for taking some 15,000 revellers to the Jean Pierre Complex instead, thus freeing up some of the perennial congestion caused by bands queuing up on Charlotte Street to get to the Savannah stage. However, the organisers of the Socadrome said yesterday that the bands have not totally ruled out crossing the Savannah which is seen as the ultimate goal of masqueraders. They noted, though, they would allow the bands actually competing in the Parade of the Bands competitions priority in crossing the main judging point.

In an interview yesterday, Harts bandleader Luis Hart said his band would definitely be going to the Savannah on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Harts, which is usually the first band to cross the stage on Carnival Tuesday, will take its masqueraders to the stage at around 7.30 am before heading to the alternative route and to the Socadrome, he said. “I believe the other bands (Yuma, Tribe and Bliss) will be going to the Socadrome first and will then make their way to the Savannah stage,” Hart said. “This is about convenience for the masquerader. The bands want to give the competing bands the opportunity to cross the stage and then later in the day head to the Savannah.” Organisers said yesterday the three other bands also intended to cross the Savannah stage after crossing the Socadrome stage once congestion on the route to the Savannah has decreased. “The intention is to give priority to the competing bands. The plan is to go to the Socadrome, then go back on the parade route, and if the parade is flowing, then the bands will take their masqueraders to the Savannah.” said a Tribe official.

The decision of the organisers may also be a response to negative comments from masqueraders in the wake of the announcement of the Socadrome initiative. Many of them took to social media to express their frustration at the decision and not being able to cross the Savannah stage. Many said they were not told of any such plans when they were signing up, or else they would have exercised their right to join other bands. While the public will be charged a $25 fee to enter the venue, organisers are encouraging all media to provide coverage for the event free of charge. They also said they were trying to address the concerns of Woodbrook residents. Last week, Woodbrook residents threatened protests and circulated a petition they had hoped would have stopped the NCC from okaying the plan since the bands plan to pass through their community on the way to the Jean Pierre Complex. They raised concerns over noise pollution and access to emergency services, as well as masqueraders leaving garbage in the streets and urinating on walls. It is not the first time mas bands have used streets in Woodbrook as a parade route, as both the defunct mas bands Poison and Barbarossa were known to pass though Woodbrook on Carnival Tuesday. “We have increased the number of road marshals on the road, as one of the concerns expressed by residents was access to emergency services,” a Socadrome official told the T&T Guardian yesterday.

“It usually isn’t a problem, as masqueraders are trained to pay attention when the music stops and to let vehicles pass though but we are still making attempts to address the concerns. “We want this to work and we understand that the concerns of the residents need to be addressed,” he added. The organisers, as stipulated in the contract with the management of the Jean Pierre Complex, are required to clean up all the surrounding streets near the venue within four hours of the end of the event. “We don’t want to terribly inconvenience residents. We want this to work and we are looking at all the comments and trying to address them,” it was stated. So far, organisers have received informal requests from other bands who are interested in using the 15,000-square-foot Socadrome stage as well but they said all formal requests need to go through the Sport Company of T&T. Acting Commissioner of Police Stephen Williams yesterday said he was satisfied that the police would have enough manpower to monitor Carnival across the country, despite the late addition of the Socadrome and alternative route for party bands. “We have called police officers off vacation leave to provide additional support and we will be given assistance by the T&T Defence Force. I am satisfied that we will effectively police Carnival 2014,”  Williams said.

SOURCE: Trinidad Guardian

BANDS JUMP UP IN JEAN PIERRE

THE National Carnival Commission (NCC) has announced it has considered and accepted a proposal put forward by leaders of four mas bands to have the route for the Parade of the Bands extended on Carnival Tuesday, between 8 am and 4 pm.

Heads of mas bands Tribe, Yuma and Bliss have indicated they have no desire to cross the big stage and be judged at traditional judging venue Queen’s Park Savannah in Port-of-Spain.

Instead, they have received permission from the Sport Company of Trinidad and Tobago (SPORTT) to utilise the Jean Pierre Complex where they will have their own stage. Harts will cross the Queen’s Park Savannah stage early on Carnival Tuesday, as is their tradition, and will then proceed to the Jean Pierre Complex. The costs associated with the change of route is to be borne by the four bands. In a statement to the media yesterday, the NCC said the move is expected to alleviate congestion by reducing masquerader count at the Savannah by approximately 15,000 persons. NCC chairman Allison Demas said the Commission is committed to providing Trinidad and Tobago with tangible transformation to the Carnival product. Demas said while participation in Carnival in Port-of-Spain has grown over the years, the parade route has remained the same, thus causing needless delays and bottlenecks which lead to a negative experience for bandleaders, masqueraders and spectators. “This route extension allows us to make a small change to the traditional route which we hope will allow us to see how best to apply systematic changes to the route toward making the Carnival experience a better one,” Demas said.

“While we acknowledge that we must be careful that the route extension does not bring an elitist division in Carnival, the NCC is guided by professional engineers who see a deeper merit to this route extension.”

The bands involved have agreed to set their parade in the St Clair area with Stanmore Avenue to the east being the furthest point. They will proceed west along Queen’s Park West and St Clair Avenue to Damien Street. Then they will proceed south on Damien Street to Bellesmythe Street (or Taylor Street) South on Bellesmythe Street (or Taylor Street) to Maraval Parkway, moving South on Maraval Parkway to enter the National Stadium compound through the Castro (west) gate. They will then parade around the outside of the stadium to the Jean Pierre complex’s West Court, across a stage installed in the Jean Pierre Complex, out through the West Court and exit the National Stadium compound through the east gate, moving north on Hamilton Holder/O’Connor Street and back to Ariapita Avenue.

Tribe’s Director of Operations Gerard Ramirez, welcomed this decision of the NCC. Ramirez told Newsday he believes the change will benefit both masqueraders and spectators alike.

“Everyone knows congestion has gotten worse and we need to improve the Carnival for everybody,” Ramirez said.

“We are happy to be part of this innovation and evolution of Carnival.” Asked about the cost the band will incur as a result of the route change and rental of the Jean Pierre Complex, Ramirez said that information was not yet available but they have given an undertaking to absorb the related expenses. He said the bandleaders were awaiting official word from the NCC before officially informing their masqueraders.

On Tuesday night, several Woodbrook residents expressed concern and spoke out against the proposal to have bands parade through their community. They cited excessive noise from music trucks, indiscriminate parking and patrons urinating on property walls as some of the reasons they have raised objections to the move. NCC officials said that Minister of National Security Gary Griffith, following discussions with senior police officials indicated that provisions will be made to increase the complement of protective personnel with members of the Defence Force to ensure the safety and security of masqueraders, spectators and residents. Griffith yesterday said his preference of what route, bands should take in Port-of-Spain on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, was irrelevant. He said that regardless of whether the bands use the current route or a different one, “we have put systems in place so the Ministry of National Security would be prepared to operate in any manner regarding a final route by the bands,” Griffith said.

Saying it is up to Arts and Multiculturalism Minister Dr Lincoln Douglas and the NCC to determine mas routes, Griffith said, “What I am trying to do is ensure this will be as safe a Carnival as possible.” However he seemed to maintain reservations about the current route.

“The present situation is really cumbersome where you have 60,000 masqueraders trying to get into one area. It will cause massive congestion. It makes it difficult for crowd control,” Griffith said at the post Cabinet press conference yesterday at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. However, he reiterated that, “if it goes that way, we would operate in the same manner that law enforcement officials have done before.”

Demas said the route for bands which are being judged in the Band of the Year competition, remains the same. 

By KEINO SWAMBER Friday, February 21 2014

Camboulay the spirit of Carnival

It is to the barrack yard people of East Dry River and their resounding victory that day, that we owe our Carnival.......Lest we forget.  

—Eintou Springer 

The re-enactment of Camboulay on Carnival Friday, on the Piccadilly Greens, Port of Spain on February 28 at 5 a.m., is symbolically the awakening of the Carnival spirit. 

The Camboulay production recognises and celebrates the bois men and women, the warriors of the mas, who are the frontline of the confrontation with Captain Baker in the 1880s. Camboulay reminds us that the Africans created a great deal despite enslavement. 

In the gayelle of the existence, the ancestors fought inch by inch to clear a space for the manifestations of their culture whether remembered or forged in the crucible of the environment to which they had been so forcibly transported. 

The Camboulay was rooted in the remembered masking traditions of West Africa, and of course influenced by the new Caribbean environment.  

By definition, the Camboulay was a torchlight procession which took place from midnight on Carnival Sunday. By the 1870s hundreds of men, carrying lighted flambeaux and sticks, some drunk, most of them masked, marched around the streets of the capital. There was drumming, hooting, singing, shouting, and fights between rival bands.   

But the authorities deemed it too disorderly and out of control. The bands of working-class men and women who came out were threatening to the respectable folk. Not to mention, the lighted torches, in a town with largely wooden buildings, was a fire hazard. 

Thus, there seemed to be just cause for closing it down. Various laws enacted between 1868 and 1879 gave Baker the authority to move against the marchers.  

At the 1880 Camboulay, he called on them to surrender their sticks, drums and torches.  Without resistance, they did as ordered.   

The following year, however, the warriors and the police faced off. Known as the Bois Bataille stick fight, bois men and women fought against the might of the British Constabulary. The masqueraders, stickfighters came out in full force and a full-scale fight ensued—involving sticks, batons, stones and fists—in which 38 out of the 150 policemen present were injured.  

The police retreated to the Barracks and remained there until Carnival Tuesday but there was no violence thereafter and the celebrations continued peacefully.  

The historic battle took place on Duke Street, in the vicinity of Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars’ panyard and this year, like in previous years, tribute is paid to the warriorhood of the former enslaved.   

Camboulay 2014 is a performance crafted by the Idakeda Group, as they continue to revisit this day in our Carnival history as it commemorates the reason for our freedom and our ability to celebrate this festival. 

Eintou Springer, the author of this play that revels in the bravery of the men and women of the barrack yards of East Dry River, says: “In the Gayelle of the existence, the ancestors fought inch by inch to clear a space for the manifestations of their culture whether remembered or forged in the crucible of the environment to which they had been so forcibly transported.”  

Within that space, it is also important to remember the genesis of the traditional mas as we know it.  For example, the Dames Lorraine characterised by their flamboyant dresses and over-exaggerated bossoms were originally portrayed by male slaves who mimicked the wives of the plantation owners. The Jab (patois for Diable or Devil) Molassie (patois for Mélasse or Molasses) is the fearsome creature who carries a pitch fork and threatens to smear spectators unless they pay him.  But the shackles and chains that restrain him also have links to slavery.  Combined with the molasses with covers his body, the character Jab also refers to the estate gangs that dealt with cane fires.”    

Deputy chairman of the National Carnival Commission, Don Sylvester, the force behind preserving traditional mas, believes understanding Carnival begins with the Kambule. “The NCC as the Executive Producer of this performance is signalling our desire to maintain our historical connections.  I would encourage as many citizens and mas lovers as possible to witness this re-enactment,” he said. “If you want to understand where Carnival began, and where the Bat, Jab Jab and other mas characters came from, this is where to begin.” 

Sylvester believes that in reliving the history of Carnival, Trinidadians can keep the tradition alive amidst the colour and vibrancy for which this festival is now known.

(Sources: Idakeda; Trinidad Express Feb 1, 2012; traditionalmas.com)  

of this play that revels in the bravery of the men and women of the barrack yards of East Dry River, says: “In the gayelle of the existence, the ancestors fought inch by inch to clear a space for the manifestations of their culture whether remembered or forged in the crucible of the environment to which they had been so forcibly transported.”  

Within that space, it is also important to remember the genesis of the traditional mas as we know it. For example, the Dames Lorraine characterised by their flamboyant dresses and over-exaggerated bosoms were originally portrayed by male slaves who mimicked the wives of the plantation owners. 

The Jab (patois for Diable or Devil) Molassie (patois for Mélasse or Molasses) is the fearsome creature who carries a pitch fork and threatens to smear spectators unless they pay him. But the shackles and chains that restrain him also have links to slavery. Combined with the molasses with covers his body, the character Jab also refers to the estate gangs that dealt with cane fires.”    

Deputy chairman of the National Carnival Commission, Don Sylvester, the force behind preserving traditional mas, believes understanding Carnival begins with the Camboulay. 

“The NCC as the executive producer of this performance is signalling our desire to maintain our historical connections. I would encourage as many citizens and mas lovers as possible to witness this re-enactment,” he said. 

“If you want to understand where Carnival began, and where the Bat, Jab Jab and other mas characters came from, this is where to begin.” 

Sylvester believes that in reliving the history of Carnival, Trinidadians and Tobagonians can keep the tradition alive amidst the colour and vibrancy for which this festival is now known.

SOURCE:Trinidad Express

Stadium Socadrome

By Peter Ray Blood
Come Carnival Tuesday, the main court of the Jean Pierre Complex, Port-of-Spain ,will be transformed into “the Socadrome,” the venue for the country’s newest Carnival Parade of the Bands showplace. This comes in the wake of much discussion to alleviate congestion along the traditional parade route to the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain. The Socadrome model is expected to initially consist of four large masquerade bands—Tribe, Bliss, Harts and Yuma—but might be expanded in the future. 

 

 

THE NEW ROUTE The four bands using the alternative route and venue are not expected to affect the traditional, official parade of bands along Ariapita Avenue. • From the starting point they will go along St Clair Avenue to Damian Street • South along Damian Street to Taylor Street to Maraval Parkway • South to enter the stadium through the western Castro gate. • From the stadium and complex through the east gate, then north on Hamilton and O’Connor Streets onto Ariapita Avenue.”

An official of the implementation arm of the Ministry of Sport said on Thursday: “Right now we are in the midst of finalising contracts. We were approached since October with the concept and idea. This is one of those events that would bring minimum risks to the stadium’s infrastructure, and it represents added revenue for us. The break down and dismantling of its temporary infrastructure must be done within a week after Carnival.” 

 

Dean Ackin, leader of Tribe, said: “The impetus for this idea really originally came from David Lopez,

president of the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA). He came up with a good idea to explore an alternative route for non-competing bands. “We found it to be a good idea, so this year, when the proposal to reverse the route was rejected, and the congestion problem remained stuck at square one, a couple of the large bands decided to explore the use of the Hasely Crawford Stadium and Jean Pierre Complex as a venue.”

 

The main reason, he explained, was that “drawing thousands of masqueraders away from the Savannah stage in the morning period of Carnival Tuesday would significantly reduce the congestion and gridlock that masqueraders have experienced for the last two decades. “What this also does is that it now gives priority to the competing bands to access the Savannah, the main competition venue.”

 

Ackin added: “At the Socadrome we are creating the Savannah experience for the participating bands. Because it is the first year, we want to have a manageable amount of bands going to the stadium. We are trying to be part of a solution to a serious problem. 

 

“On Carnival Tuesday, 60 mas bands try to cross that Savannah stage in eight hours, an exercise that would take 25 hours. By removing these huge bands, there’ll be considerably more space for bands wanting to compete in the Band of the Year competition to cross the Savannah stage and enjoy their mas.”

 

 

NCBA not in favour

 Lopez said his organisation is not in support of a separate venue for mas. He explained, “The NCBA supported an extension of the route. “However, the NCBA never supported a separate venue and we will definitely not be supporting a separate venue.” 

 

 

In a conference phone interview Thursday, with NCBA Parade of the Bands committee head Sam Lewis present, Lopez added, “For the past five years, the NCBA, through the its subcommittee (the Parade of the Bands committee), has been lobbying for an extension of the parade route and indicated that the non-competing bands, who don’t have a desire to compete in the competition, should have their own route. 

 

 

“This was rejected by the police for a number reasons, the main one being that they did not have the necessary manpower to control the extended route.” Lopez added that again in 2014, there was a request for an extension of the route and a reversal of the direction of the route  to help ease the congestion. But this again was rejected. 

 

 

The new route
The four bands using the alternative route and venue are not expected to affect the traditional, official parade of bands along Ariapita Avenue.
•From the starting point they will go along St Clair Avenue to Damien Street
•South along Damien Street to Taylor Street to Maraval Parkway
•South to enter the stadium through the western Castro gate.
•From the stadium and complex through the east gate, then north on Hamilton and O’Connor Streets onto Ariapita Avenue.”

SOURCE:Trinidad Guardian

Mas by Other Means, a conversation about carnival and contemporary art

University scholar Christopher Innes and visual artist Marlon Griffith, the Art Gallery of York University’s artist-in-residence, will discuss carnival and contemporary art Tuesday at York.
“Mas by Other Means: A Conversation between Carnival and Contemporary Art” will take place Feb. 4, from 3:30 to 5:30pm, at 519 Kaneff Tower, Keele campus. It is presented by the Art Gallery of York University and the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event.

Innes will speak about Peter Minshall’s work with Carnival in Trinidad and about the carnival photographs of Jeffrey Chock. A Trinidadian photographer, Chock documented Carnival, theatre and dance performances in his country over many decades, leaving behind an extraordinary document of Trinidad’s mas traditions and their echoes across different artistic forms at his recent death. Chock’s photographs are published in Trinidad Carnival (2006), and his collection is currently being digitized at York University.
The author of 15 books and more than 120 articles on various aspects of modern drama, Innes holds the Canada Research Chair in Performance and Culture at York University, where he is a Distinguished Research Professor. Since his grandfather took him to see Peter Pan at the tender age of four, he has been fascinated by theatre, and his work has focused on the connections between performance and society. His most recent books are Carnival: Theory and Practice, edited together with Brigitte Bogar (2012), and The Cambridge Introduction to Theatre Directing (2013). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and of the Royal Society of Arts in the United Kingdom, as well as a Killam Fellow. For more information, visit Christopher Innes’s website.


Beginning his career as a ‘Mas’ man for Carnival, Griffith’s current work derives its form (and to an extent its process) from the performative, participatory, and ephemeral characteristics that derive from Carnival. His work is based upon a reciprocal dialogue between ‘Mas’ (the artistic component of the Trinidad Carnival) and contemporary art as a means of investigating the phenomenological aspect of the embodied experience while interrogating contemporary visual culture outside the traditional pitfalls of representation.
Often taking the form of street processions, Griffith’s performative actions are stripped down to their basic form and abstracted to create new images and narratives that respond critically and poetically to our socio-cultural environment.

Griffith will speak about his recent projects in the context of movement, both in the processional sense of bodies-in-motion but also as forms-in-translation. How does the movement of cultural forms from one location to another – for instance from Trinidad to Japan, or Cape Town, or Toronto – or from one context to another – from Carnival to contemporary art – change the meaning and potential of the form itself. How does the migration of forms change the places they move to? Or the contexts they are presented in? How do performative forms of colonial cultural resistance in the America’s engage with other public manifestations of solidarity, such as recent protest movements worldwide?
Griffith (1976, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago) has been an artist in residence at Bag Factory/Fordsburg Artists Studios in Johannesburg (2004); Mino Paper Art Village in Japan (2005); Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica (2007); Popop Studios, Nassau, The Bahamas (2010-11); and Art Omi, Ghent, New York (2011).
Recent projects include new commissions for Gwangju (7th Gwangju Biennale, 2008), Cape Town (CAPE09, 2009), MANIFESTA 9 Parallel Projects (Hasselt, Belgium, 2012), and AICHI TRIENNALE (Nagoya, Japan 2013).
For more University news, photos and videos, visit the YFile homepage


 SOURCE: http://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2014/02/01/mas-by-other-means-a-conversation-about-carnival-and-contemporary-art/

Parade route stays east-west Prakash: In the interest of mas

CARNIVAL STAKEHOLDERS MEET: Acting Prime Minister Prakash Ramadhar, right, National Security Minister Gary Griffith, second from right, and public engagement officer Lisa Ghany at Thursday’s meeting with bandleaders at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair Avenue, St Clair. From left are TTCBA president Gerard Weekes, Michael “Big Mike” Antoine and NCDF chairman Mahindra Satram-Maharaj. —Photo: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK

Carnival stakeholders have accepted  the decision by acting Prime Minister Prakash Ramadhar to keep the Carnival parade route as is—in an east-to-west direction through the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain—in the interest of the mas.

On Thursday night, the National Carnival Commission (NCC), the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival Bandleaders’ Association (TTCBA), and the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) met with acting PM Ramadhar for close to five hours at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair to discuss the parade route.

Arts and Multiculturalism Minister Dr Lincoln Douglas and Minister of National Security Gary Griffith were also in attendance. 

The organisations proposed that, given the congestion experienced along the east-to-west route in past years, a west-to-east direction of the parade would make for an easier flow of bands. 

“We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result...that is a sign of madness,” David Lopez, head of the NCBA, told the Express yesterday.

He said in his organisation’s consultations, issues such as the bottle neck at Piccadilly Street, Park Street and Charlotte Street; and the impact of the loud music on newborn babies at Port of Spain General Hospital  from the trucks accompanying the bands were some of the things that were taken into consideration.

“While we have room to challenge the Minister’s decision, we believe that as a responsible organisation the bigger picture is Trinidad Carnival and not ego.

“We don’t want to take away from the mood of the Carnival so we continue our work. Carnival is more important,” said Lopez.

NCC chairman Allison Demas said her organisation will continue to work towards its objective of reducing congestion on the parade of the bands route on Carnival Monday and particularly Tuesday.

“We want to ensure that masqueraders are able to move freely through the streets of Port of Spain and that specatators get to view the mas from strategic vantage points.” 

Minister Douglas said the proposal  from the NCC to move bands clockwise into the Queen’s Park Savannah has been deferred to Carnival celebrations in 2015 due to limited time for its successful implementation. 

Asked about the resolution, Douglas said: “The situation is resolved after an extensive discussion with acting Prime Minister Prakash Ramadhar and the bandleaders. When you consider  the new position it would discommode the bandleaders who had already worked out their logistics. Too many bandleaders had already put the logistics in place as to which route they will be taking. Even though it was a great idea and we have begun collecting the data, we will have to defer it to post-Carnival. We will look at implementing it for Carnival 2015. The plan is to think about a long-term solution.

“We have arrived at a decision that the bandleaders will use the same route as usual. We feel we could add alternative pieces to the route. Bands that feel the need to compete might find an alternative route and those who don’t wish to compete could find another option for the Carnival,” he added.

By Essiba Small and Michelle Loubon 

SOURCE: TrinidadExpress