BIKINIS AND BEADS

Today, Trinidad and Tobago begins the long Carnival weekend with the Children’s Carnival which over the years has become quite a spectacle. The participation of schools from all over the country has enabled the young artists to develop, to engage and be involved in creative work as costumes are designed and constructed. Indeed many adult bandleaders could learn a lesson or two from the themes of these school bands which put emphasis on creating a “costume” as we once knew the meaning of the word.

Unfortunately today the big and more popular bands have a different definition of the word and charge their players heavily for something that (as one wit put it in a recent article) could easily fit into a peanut paper bag and held in the palm of their hand. Bikinis and strings of beads which we shall see in full measure on Monday and Tuesday are as far removed from a costume as the east is from the west. But masqueraders prefer it this way. Seeing Carnival purely in terms of jump and wine, the enjoyment of which would be seriously hampered by the wearing of a true “costume”.

Many among us who remember Carnival as a time for “dressing up” in full costume, may long for a return of those days. This they are unlikely to see. For one, Carnival today means different things to different people and those who produce bands nowadays do so not with costuming in mind but with the intention of making as much money as they can. If masqueraders want the merest suggestion of a costume consisting of bikinis and beads that is exactly what the bandleaders will provide. After all, what mas players want, mas players will get.