00:00Now, I, Chinua Alain, Mayor of the City of Port of Spain, do hereby declare Carnival 2026 open.
00:18As is customary, that declaration marked the 4 a.m. start to the activities with the Old Maas competition in
00:24downtown Port of Spain.
00:26Participants brought a comical spin to serious issues, past and present, with their usual play on words, like Marcia Ayers
00:34returned to the bench, Penny moved motion to speaker, Balizaire blue wash in Tobago, Olive Green jailed under the SOE,
00:43and Babydoll, who addressed spectators.
00:46Life is never dull. Sometimes we have a good man, a bad man, an in-between man. I like to
00:54have a variety. One to cook, one to wash, one to see about the pampers. What do you want to
01:00do? You want to see about schooling? Another worthless one again. He's shaking his head.
01:05But perhaps the most anti-government portrayal of all. UNC say everybody win, but the truth is, everybody lose.
01:14Geopolitics were also part of the mix with this portrayal of I want Greenland too.
01:20It is daybreak here at the Lord Kitchener stand in downtown Port of Spain. And what you are seeing behind
01:28me are all the old Maas competitors. We've seen about 30 of them.
01:32And from what we are being told, that amount has actually exceeded what was seen in 2025. The king and
01:40queen are now getting ready to be crowned.
01:43In the women's category, third place went to Margaret Montano for her portrayal of Plenty for 20. Second place to
01:51Deborah Lewis for U.S. Hat TNT in Grip.
01:54And the queen of Juve 2026 is Laverne Smith, a finding he, she, and everybody. She has also copped the
02:02most topical title.
02:04It's Smith's third consecutive win. Asked about how she came up with a topic, she reveals another success story that
02:11now in her 50s, she recently sat the CXC Social Studies Examination.
02:17I'm an orphan. I didn't have any mother or father, so I wasn't able to finish school. And my grandmother
02:22did pretty well. And then she said, Mama, you know what? You helped me to do it. And I think
02:25you can do it too. Just come do it. And I went with her and did it. So we both
02:28passed.
02:29And in the men's category, third place went to Everton Cardinal. In 2026, more tax in Meas. Second place and
02:38most tumorous, Wayne Muhammad. Ofak, a pass in Dragon Gas, none for TNT.
02:44And the king of Juve 2026 is Richard Montano, who has retained his 2025 crown with UNC running the corn
02:53tree, which has also won most creative.
02:56Montano, who returns from abroad annually to compete, believes that downtown Juve is dying, but he says it's salvageable.
03:05The prize for the king and queen is $2,500 each.
03:09I think they could bump it up to about $4,000, something that, you know, someone could buy material to
03:18portray something that is looking at a little more quality.
03:22Because what I'm weighing right now is actually more than the active price. But my passion for all masks is
03:30right here all the time.
03:31Chairman of the downtown carnival committee counselor, Clint Batiste, says they have been working with a decrease in subvention since
03:38last year, but have managed to keep the $300,000 price structure to facilitate all competitions under their purview.
03:46Batiste says it was around 30 to 40 percent and a further 15 percent this year.
03:52So to help with that, the city has entered our partnership with the NCC, where we split the advertising money
03:59for the festivities for the carnival season.
04:02Mayor Allen says the city corporation views the traditional mass as integral to culture, and there are competitions that target
04:10those elements.
04:12And we continue to do that. This is one of the things that, in having conversations with the chief judge
04:17over the course of the last few seasons, the judges are very keen on the council continuing to invest in
04:24seeing that part of our culture continue to grow and flourish.
04:28On another note, wrecking is in effect along emergency and parade routes.
04:33Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
Comments