Beads and Feathers - Carnival Tuesday

A subdued and contained carnival



The masquerader dressed up in white and wearing a Santa Claus hat is more likely to be a homeless person. She and many vagrants played their Mas to a much controlled carnival Tuesday. Beads and Feathers reined the day, and the streets of Port of Spain, Trinidad ,West Indies were clogged making it impossible for spectators to move. Large bands such as Tribe had their security and a convoy of trucks including the amenities of an art conditioned bus to stacks of portable toilets, all confined within the boundary of a continuous length of rope held by Tribe's security staff.

On this day, disabled people ventured out with their wheel chairs and three persons affected with Down's syndrome took to the streets wearing feathered head pieces donated by kind masqueraders. At one judging point, an infant in her pampers held the audience captive as she expressed that the identity of a Race is rooted in its genes. The little individual danced up a storm. Parks around the city were used as resting points to feed thousands of masqueraders and afterwards, the place was littered with plastic bottles and food containers having homeless people savaging for a full meal within all the waste.

A Fancy Indian masquerader stressed that Traditional Mas was much alive from her small band from San Fernando. She also lamented that the Beads and Feathers generation of baby boomers had reached a age where their bodies were less flattering. Only the youth could up keep in such a skimpy costume. Then, there were the individuals who best represented Trinidad and Tobago's carnival, dressed in full suit to play themselves to the world to see. And what more to end the evening with Phase II, the Panorama champs with a solo melody to soothed the lastlap Mas players.