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To­ba­go’s J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions got off to a smooth but qui­et start yes­ter­day morn­ing, with no­tice­ably low­er par­tic­i­pa­tion than in pre­vi­ous years. In Scar­bor­ough, the fes­tiv­i­ties be­gan lat­er than usu­al, at around 7 am, with more mas­quer­aders than spec­ta­tors.

The streets had an al­most ghost-town feel, but at the Mar­ket Square judg­ing point, ole mas con­tes­tants still put on a show, dis­play­ing plac­ards with po­lit­i­cal satire and pos­i­tive mes­sages. Tra­di­tion­al char­ac­ters like the black and blue dev­il al­so made ap­pear­ances.

Over at Crown Point, the at­mos­phere was live­li­er with scores of peo­ple flood­ing the streets. Un­like Scar­bor­ough, there were more spec­ta­tors than mas­quer­aders, but the en­er­gy re­mained vi­brant as peo­ple en­joyed the mu­sic and rev­el­ry.