Kings, queens reign at QPS

Big Friday will feature the finalists in each category competing to secure the King and Queen of Carnival titles in both the junior and senior categories. The senior competition was traditionally held on Carnival Sunday night during the Dimanche Gras show. However the National Carnival Bands’ Association, producers of the show, expects that the move to Friday night would place more focus on this particular aspect of Carnival than ever before.

Over the past few weeks, masqueraders have been competing in preliminaries and judges have been adding up the numbers so the best of the best would appear on stage tonight.

Leading the pack after the semi-finals of the senior Queen of Carnival competition held on Tuesday is Leslie Frauenfelder portraying “Danis Wantaim – The Danger of Reconciliation”. Last year’s Carnival Queen, Charrisee Bovell placed tenth in Tuesday’s semi-final while portraying “Rakuen No Yorokobi (The Joy of Paradise)” from Brian Mac Farlane’s 2013 presentation “Joy: The Finale”.

Mac Farlane’s King fared batter in the semi-finals of his competition also held on Tuesday. Gerard Weekes, who placed second overall last year, topped the semi-finals on Tuesday portraying “Ai To Yujo No Yorokobi (The Joy of Love and Friendship)”. Ten Kings and ten Queens will compete in the finals.

Coming out of the Junior competition preliminaries held last Sunday at Adam Smith Square, Port-of-Spain, 15 masqueraders in the Kings and Queens categories were chosen to compete in the finals of the competition. Denzil Patrick Jennings as “D’Real King Clown in Town (Tribute to Rudolph Le Gall)” topped the Kings category while Patrina Harrigin portraying “I Dream of An Indian Bustle Dancer” received the most points in the Queens category. Geraldo Vieira Jr will produce the show which will have a special video tribute to his father Geraldo Vieira Sr who passed away last year. Aside from the mas, there will be some big names in the soca and calypso arena providing entertainment including Bunji Garlin (Ian Alvarez), Fay Ann and the Asylum band, Kes the Band, David Rudder and Denyse Plummer.

Here are the finalists in each category who would appear this evening during the finals of the King and Queen of Carnival and Individual of the Year competition: