I hate to say it but my first carnival experince was a bit of a disappointment.
Hubby and I signed up with Harts, mainly because he played with them in 2007 and a lot of our friends were playing with them. I ordered our costumes online picking the Vayu section mainly because it had funky matching headpieces for both boys and girls. The online system was really good and I have to admit I was suprised to find that they had our sizes and details correct when I got over here in December.
The system for picking up the costumes wasnt really that straightforward and rushing out in my lunch break wasnt the best move as when i finally got home and tried everything on I found out that several bits were missing and the only bit that fitted me were the arm and leg cuffs! Thinking I must have lost a huge amount of weight in the last few months, I measured myself again... nope, still the same size.. WTF? I went back the next day to try and get it sorted and was told that only the belt could be adjusted and I should have checked everything when i picked it up, I paid $3200 for this, it all got too much for me and I simply burst into tears at the mas camp. Thank you so much to the ladies who helped me out, almost bullying the guys at the desk until they found the missing parts of my costume for me. Still the next 3 days were spent buying a white bikini that fitted me and sewing the bits of the costume onto that. Luckily when hubby turned up his
costume fitted but even he got handy with the needle and thread sewing soft felt around his neckpiece to make sure he didnt get decapitated by the razor-wire like trim.
On a high after Jouvert, we then stood still, ok, so we did move a bit, really slowly, taking over an hour to get along Tragerete on Monday morning. With the band getting stormed by jouvert leftovers still covered in mud and a really rubbish atmosphere. We were there for a 2 hours, then we walked home, bored.
Starting early on Tuesday I got my makeup done down in Belmont and we planned to join the band as the went up Charlotte st to the savannah, little did we know that they did a short-cut up Tragerete and had already passed the savannah by 7.30! We missed it. We joined the fellow lost people looking for their band for the next hour. When we caught up with them on Arapita the band was simply a compressed mash up of teenagers, extremely drunk tourists and stormers. The atmosphere was horrible with lots of pushing and shoving, shouted insults, unwanted groping, and no security to be seen. This didnt feel like the 'band that plays mas for fun' to us. We finally gave up when our drinks truck refused to serve hubby because 'he a white boy', oh come on... over half the band are white boys, and they had been hapily serving us for the previous couple of hours? All this and the rain to top it off meant that we again left early. As we travelled home my funky headpiece
fell apart. $3200 well spent, NOT.
To all the other vagrants who had lost their bands and danced along having a good time with us, thank you, you made our day.
To Harts, we will not be playing with you again.
Hubby and I signed up with Harts, mainly because he played with them in 2007 and a lot of our friends were playing with them. I ordered our costumes online picking the Vayu section mainly because it had funky matching headpieces for both boys and girls. The online system was really good and I have to admit I was suprised to find that they had our sizes and details correct when I got over here in December.
The system for picking up the costumes wasnt really that straightforward and rushing out in my lunch break wasnt the best move as when i finally got home and tried everything on I found out that several bits were missing and the only bit that fitted me were the arm and leg cuffs! Thinking I must have lost a huge amount of weight in the last few months, I measured myself again... nope, still the same size.. WTF? I went back the next day to try and get it sorted and was told that only the belt could be adjusted and I should have checked everything when i picked it up, I paid $3200 for this, it all got too much for me and I simply burst into tears at the mas camp. Thank you so much to the ladies who helped me out, almost bullying the guys at the desk until they found the missing parts of my costume for me. Still the next 3 days were spent buying a white bikini that fitted me and sewing the bits of the costume onto that. Luckily when hubby turned up his
costume fitted but even he got handy with the needle and thread sewing soft felt around his neckpiece to make sure he didnt get decapitated by the razor-wire like trim.
On a high after Jouvert, we then stood still, ok, so we did move a bit, really slowly, taking over an hour to get along Tragerete on Monday morning. With the band getting stormed by jouvert leftovers still covered in mud and a really rubbish atmosphere. We were there for a 2 hours, then we walked home, bored.
Starting early on Tuesday I got my makeup done down in Belmont and we planned to join the band as the went up Charlotte st to the savannah, little did we know that they did a short-cut up Tragerete and had already passed the savannah by 7.30! We missed it. We joined the fellow lost people looking for their band for the next hour. When we caught up with them on Arapita the band was simply a compressed mash up of teenagers, extremely drunk tourists and stormers. The atmosphere was horrible with lots of pushing and shoving, shouted insults, unwanted groping, and no security to be seen. This didnt feel like the 'band that plays mas for fun' to us. We finally gave up when our drinks truck refused to serve hubby because 'he a white boy', oh come on... over half the band are white boys, and they had been hapily serving us for the previous couple of hours? All this and the rain to top it off meant that we again left early. As we travelled home my funky headpiece
fell apart. $3200 well spent, NOT.
To all the other vagrants who had lost their bands and danced along having a good time with us, thank you, you made our day.
To Harts, we will not be playing with you again.
10 comments:
I know somebody is sure to jump down my throat for playing favourites with Harts, but there are a few inconsistencies in this review that lead me to believe that this person either found themselves in the wrong band, or is fabricating at least part of this story (I truly hope it's the former). On Carnival Tuesday, Harts left the band house at 6:30, took their usual route up Tragarete Road, to Park Street, then Charlotte Street and arrived at the Savannah around 7:30. The National Anthem was played at 8, and the band crossed the stage at 8:30
There are a few other suspect statements in this review that I will not comment on, since I have no physical proof that they are untrue. But I think readers who are even remotely familiar with Harts will share my suspicions.
I feel your pain, I Do. I do. The only element to this I can add is that the belt really needed adjusting and the costume fell apart with ease. Thank goodness we are seasoned mas players to work a glue gun, needle and thread.
But we shouldn't have to do all these major adjustments. Why pay so much for a costume that just falls apart or is the wrong size or is poorly made? IF we have to do all these adjustments, might as well make our own costume.
And in Harts -
It is difficult to check at the mas camp during collection time, cause all we were instructed to do was check your pieces with the guys in the back. The guys check and ya on your way.
There was no area or information indicating that we could have tried it on, see how it fit, ask for adjustments to be made - nothing.
If we have to pay so much (and please take note - drinks and food are paid separately, and is not included in the $3,200 dollar price), and make adjustments, then why don't we just create a band where you design your own costume and the band provides food, drinks, music, band profit and security only.
The person designs their own and just pay for the packages they need. I mean, at the end of the day, I am sure I can recycle some old costume, redesign it into Divaliciousness (yeah, a tongue twister) and come out like a FL.
Cause at the end of the day, $3,200, plus boots, decorations, etc. etc., you really have turned a $3,200.00 costume to a $4,500 plus, (Not counting the money for the many appointments) two day, walking down de road creation.
I am MJ
I say call de band - 2010 Mich/Mash - Aye, and if you use it, I get some royalties. Nuff Said
As for finding de band, Squeezle, I cya comment.
MJ, somebody beat you to that idea girl! I've heard of at least 2 bands so far that let you supply your own costume. The band gives you a specific theme to work with, and provides the music, security, food and drinks, and you just show up as simple or as fancy as you desire.
Well, there you go. Look out Jimmy, hello Samaroooooos..... Let the jewels fly!
I disagree highly with this Harts review. Harts is one of the better organized bands with the tightest security.
I've played mas with Harts many many years and will continue to do so.
Everyone knows Harts tries to cross the stage first. And as Squeezle mentioned it was at 8:30 not 7:30.
The only issue I had this year was with the Anahita section, where the blue/green shells kept falling off. Beautiful section but poorly constructed, which is unusual for Harts. Other than that I have no complaints whatsoever, as I had a great time!
this is very strange.
i too have played with harts and have NEVER had these sorts of issues.
i hope the reviewer has communicated her issues to the mas camp.
I played with Harts too and question this review as well. Teenagers, extremely drunk tourists and stormers? That wasn't my experience at all. And I didn't encounter this so called pushing and shoving at all, not to mention unwanted groping. And I jumped up and down that band sometimes on my own, and felt safe at all times. Security was excellent, and the crowd was nothing but fun and orderly.
I loved my costume, and the fit was really good. Now mind you, I wasn't too impressed with the bikini bottoms, but I am pretty picky when it comes to covering my bumsie, so I made and brought my own from home in Canada. Loved the detail on my heavily pearlized bra top, and while the belt was a bit big, it wasn't much to fix. Considering how tricky it can be to nail down sizes 100% of the time as a swimwear designer myself, this did not put me off too much at all.
I thought that the costumes overall in Harts were spectacular, some more so than others - the headpieces were incredibly detailed and the frontline and individual costumes were breathtakingly beautiful!
As for the drinks cart, because they were individually run and organized, there should have been no problem with them at all. In fact, with your wristband for ID and I am assuming with knowing the members of your drinks cart, not sure why this was even an issue - questionable at best!
I had a blast with Harts and have only good memories of my C2K9 experience with them. I will always play with them and am already starting to count the days till C2K10!
Actually i heard from friends of mine that there were a lot of drunk teenagers, some were girls posing and dressed like boys not more thatn 15 years old it seemed and stormers too were in the band. The secutiry also was not top of the line and my friends say it was not at all what they expected from Harts.. These people are die hard harts fans who play with them every year so i know better than to think they are lying.
So i guess that part of her story i understand.
I have been playin with harts for at least Five years and ive never seen drunk teenagers, harts ia a great band, we have fun, although some things could be changed such as their security arrabgements, i enjoy their fun loving atmosphere, we are able to Play our mas aith no hinderance. harts did a fantastic job this year, an the oldest band in trinidad, they should be given credit. i pais $1800 for my costume and i lobved it, all of my costumes from colorosion to utopia ti voyage BC, lights camera action and the beautiful persian empire ar art pieces on my wall. where can you get hand made costumes in this day and age? what about the made in china costumes from Tribe and island people? I love harts, kudos to Louis, Gerad and Nigel. Just hope they rope off the band next year to stop the vagrants !
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