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Over 60 bands take part in Junior Parade of Bands - Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

Over 60 bands graced the stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah (QPS) on Saturday with their brightly coloured pieces and loud soca music. Some of the themes represented were the wonders of TT – QPS, the Buccoo Reef, and the steelpan.

Veteran bandleader Roslind Gabriel continued to set a high standard for children's mas with her presentation National Treasures, celebrating Carnival icons, among them calypsonian and soca legend Austin “Super Blue” Lyons, the late rapso pioneer Lutalo Makossa Masimba better known as Brother Resistance, and the late Wayne Berekely who holds the record for the most Band of the Year titles.

Super Blue also jumped up with the band accompanied by a group of toddlers dressed in royal blue with the bandana to match like he does.

Among the presentations in the original category were the Eclipse Junior Band's Beauty of Mas, DMC Kids's Soca Gold – Celebrating the Greatest and Carlene Perouse Happy People's Sweet Tooth.

[caption id="attachment_1001917" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A member of Trini Minis enjoys herself during their presentation Neon Jumbies while crossing the stage during the Junior Parade of Bands at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain on Saturday. Photo by Ayanna Kinsale[/caption]

Before the bands began crossing the stage, soca blared from the entrance of the stage. The bands passed with their music trucks and the booms emanating from it shook the crowd, while the children jumped and danced with big grins on their faces.

Though at the start, the crowd was a bit scarce, they were still seen bouncing in their seats and clapping to Hard Fete by Bunji Garlin and Come Home by Nailah Blackman and Skinny Fabulous, while cheering on the children. These songs played throughout the day.

Looking on, anyone could see how hard the creators worked on making these costumes, some of them having specific detailing to match the theme. Sweet Trinbago was one of those bands, there were six sets of costumes all representing the beauty of TT’s nature – Around D Savannah, Steelpan, Pitch Lake, Caroni Bird Sanctuary, Parang, and Buccoo Reef.

The Steelpan masqueraders were dressed in red, white and black with a large gold collar decorated in small pictures of steelpans. They also had on black top hats and wore the national flag on their chests. The leader for their section wore a massive black and gold costume with paper mache steelpans and musical notes clearly displayed on a part of his back piece. Along with the musical notes, the back piece extended way off his body and it was fully gold with reflective stars and circles adored on it.

As for the Pitch Lake, the children were dressed in a black pants with an extended waist piece covered in a silver cobweb design. They also had a back piece that had multiple black feathers with silver detailing.

The frontliner of the Caroni Bird Sanctuary section was dressed in a long, brown hoop skirt with frills and long brown foam to represent the mangroves. The top was a green one and featured large leaves that’s meant to show the tree

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