Click to view full size

With a month re­main­ing in the Car­ni­val 2026 sea­son, pa­trons at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain on Fri­day night were able to en­joy a free Car­ni­val con­cert that brought sev­er­al of the sea­son’s biggest per­form­ers to a pub­lic stage, of­fer­ing ac­cess to high-pro­file en­ter­tain­ment for those who may not be able to af­ford tick­et­ed events.

The show, held at the John Cu­pid Car­ni­val Vil­lage, drew a large and di­verse crowd and stood out for a line-up dom­i­nat­ed by fe­male artistes, re­flect­ing the sig­nif­i­cant role women con­tin­ue to play in shap­ing con­tem­po­rary Car­ni­val mu­sic. For many in at­ten­dance, the free ad­mis­sion meant the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­pe­ri­ence live per­for­mances by head­line acts who typ­i­cal­ly ap­pear at paid fetes dur­ing the sea­son.

Es­tab­lished so­ca stars Fay Ann Lyons, Na­dia Bat­son, Nailah Black­man, Patrice Roberts, De­stra Gar­cia and Nes­sa Prep­py led the pro­gramme, de­liv­er­ing en­er­getic sets that kept the au­di­ence en­gaged through­out the night. They were joined by fan favourites La­dy La­va and Jadel, whose per­for­mances res­onat­ed strong­ly with younger pa­trons and ca­su­al Car­ni­val-go­ers drawn to the open-air venue.