On­look­ers lined the bar­ri­ers along South Quay in Port-of-Spain on Car­ni­val Tues­day, as a kalei­do­scope of colour, feath­ers and se­quins flood­ed the cap­i­tal for the Pa­rade of Bands. Just af­ter 7 am yes­ter­day, be­neath over­cast skies that threat­ened to damp­en spir­its, the first large band, The Lost Tribe, made its ap­proach to the judg­ing point.

De­spite the gloomi­ness, mas­quer­aders shim­mered in in­tri­cate de­signs, ra­di­ant golds, ocean­ic blues and bursts of fiery or­ange.

As they crossed, mu­sic trucks pumped an­thems that have de­fined the sea­son: Machel Mon­tano’s En­core, Voice’s Cyah Be­have My­self, and Bun­ji Gar­lin’s Road Man, send­ing waves of ex­cite­ment through the crowd.