‘Tsunami’ sweeps downtown

From as early as 7 am, hundreds of masqueraders were seen entering the city and several car parks which were vacant around the same time on Carnival Monday were 75 percent full yesterday at this early hour.

As masqueraders hustled to get to their respective bands and spectators flocked to South Quay to get prime seats to watch the day’s parade of the bands, excitement was heightened when they saw the shimmering blue and silver float that was “Pacific Tsunami” at the head of its band Legacy near the Eric Williams Financial Complex as its revellers warmed up in preparation to cross the stage.

Madray and Legacy had a little while to wait as Ronnie and Caro’s Survivors was the first band to cross the judging point at South Quay at 8.07 am. Survivors started with a serene presentation of its “Go Green” section with revellers clad in green plumes and matching briefs or bikinis.

The band upped the tempo with its next section of “Fire on the Hills” with revellers wearing brilliant orange and gold attire. The next section “Smoke Pollution” showed that where there’s fire there’s smoke, complementing “Fire on the Hills” with their costumes of black and silver.

However it was Legacy that stole the downtown stage with their 2011 offering South Pacific. Legacy opened their presentation with female revellers clad in floral attire and costumes, performing a traditional Hawaiian hula dance.

After that, Legacy unleashed a tsunami of revellry with Madray leading the way. The King of Carnival was followed by moko jumbies and a plethora of revellers clad in feathers and costumes of orange, gold, red and green. New band Yuma was next and did not disappoint with their presentation Zodeak in which its revellers portrayed all of the signs of the zodiac with costumes of grey, green and red.

They were followed by 007’s Colours of Green which mixed modern and traditional Mas.

This band was led by a group of moko jumbies playing midnight robbers who had spectators riveted by their grim monologues. Spectators were equally thrilled when some male revellers with the band breathed fire into the air and then gave way to their female counterparts who danced along South Quay wearing broad rimmed black hats and black and silver sequined bikinis.

Security was heavy at South Quay with members of the Guard and Emergency Branch and Mounted Branch providing support to other uniformed police officers. While all of this was happening, vendors along South Quay and Independence seemed to be having brisk sales from both locals and tourists who came to take in the show.