TRINIDAD WILL BE a mas of activity for the next five days as the entire country goes full blast for Carnival 2011.
Activities kicked into high gear from last weekend to usher in a full week of themed and other fetes at various points across the country.
Today, Fantastic Friday or Carnival Friday, is one of the main highlights on the Carnival Calendar. Barbados’ Anderson Blood Armstrong is looking to blaze a trail in the bMobile International Soca Monarch competition, where he has not been a competitor since the 1990s with his Kitty Kat hit.
In addition to hoping to take home the coveted TT$2 million prize, Blood will also be looking to do a hat-trick with Foot On Fire, which won him the Party Monarch and Tune-Of-The-Crop titles at Crop Over last year, and at the same time become the only non-Trinidadian to win the power segment of the Soca Monarch competition. He is appearing in second position, right behind defending champs JW & Blaze.
Other Barbadians performing for Carnival include Li’l Rick, whose remake with Machel created quite a bit of heat in the lead-up to Carnival, and soca queen Alison Hinds.
This year is expected to be extra sizzling with the return of favourite Machel Montano, who will be performing alongside the other major contenders like Bunji, Iwer, Destra and Fay-Ann and regional monarchs Blood, Skinny Fabulous and Tian Winter.
The junior revellers will take centre stage tomorrow for the parade at the Queen’s Park Savannah, then later on it’s the pan lovers’ paradise when the highly competitive and anticipated Panorama finals take place at the Savannah. PCS Silver Stars won two straight last year.
Calypso fans will be looking forward to the big showdown at Dimanche Gras in the Big Yard. Eleven challengers will be trying to dethrone Kurt Allen. Chalkdust, who equalled Sparrow’s record of eight wins two years ago, will be making his second bid to set a new record. The contestants will sing two songs each.
A few hours after the calypso monarch is announced, paint, mud and glitter will be an essential part of costuming for J’Ouvert morning as people take advantage of the cool temperatures and slower paced revelling at different points in the country.
The streets of Port-of-Spain will be transformed into a mass of colour on Monday and Tuesday when thousands of revellers take to the streets for the two-day jump-up.
