Island People and Harts Distribution

Both Island People Mas and Harts will begin cosutme distribution on Monday January 28th. Emails with the specific dates and times for each sections will go out this week, I was told. In addition the advertisement will be placed in the newspapers and on the websites so keep checking for updates.

Island People will distribute at the Jean Pierre Complex and Harts at their mas camp.

Wendy the two band H.O.

This year I challenged my inner F.H.O. (Frontline Highmaintence Overachiver) and did away with my barely frontline Fireman costume to play Traditional Fancy Sailor with my own special costume designed exclusively for me! Having tasted the H.O.ness I am already anticipating playing frontline again for 2008! I have to say it is quite intoxicating getting so much attention and photographs and I can see why legends such as prettidolli seek to be a F.H.O. year after year.

As I wrote about in my Enigma of the Two Band H.O. article last September there are those special ladies who take the H.O.ism one step further and play in two entirely different bands! This year Honourable mention goes to none other than Wendy Fitzwilliam who played frontline with Harts on Tuesday Morning in the section Zeal:

Then went on to play in Jean and Dinah on Tribe on Tuesday afternoon!



Wendy not only embodies the true spirit of H.O.ism but she has set a pinnacle that all Carnival Divas can only hope to achieve someday!

Photos: toronto-lime.com and truetrini.com

Costume Review............

When you are in one band for Carnival the disadvantage is that you do not get to see others. From my vantage point I saw several Island People masqueraders as well as a few from Brian Mc Farlane (saw the entire band on Monday doing their phagwa portrayal), Legacy, Pulse 8, Trini Revellers and Genesis.

Of the costumes I saw from Island People Sacred Sand looked beautiful! I really liked that costume at the mas camp and it looked the same on the road. Sahara Jumbie also looked great, the actual costume was of an iridescent material and only the headpiece had the black feathers. Jewel of the Nile, Oasis, Goddess and Nubians failed to live up to the hype for me. Jewel looked cheap; there some girls from that section in Tribe so I inspected the costume up close. My hubby even got some girl’s arm band from Jewel of the Nile and half the stones were missing already! Nubians looked okay, the frontline headpiece was a slightly smaller one than the prototype, now that is another thing I take issues with, and not only with Island People. Why do they advertise one costume and when you eventually get it they cheat you out of feathers or beads making the costume with fewer materials than what were displayed? Anyway, Nubians needed to be a more vibrant red and many masqueraders got rid of the fabric.

Island People


Oasis which was another one of my favourites looked quite “normal” on the road, nothing outstanding, and that headpiece looked like chicken wire! Goddess was one of those costumes that looked better on some people and not all. You simply had to be of the right complexion to pull off the costume, but overall it looked okay. Being the “hot” section I expected much more. As for Sirrocco Winds I finally saw what was reported before and I have to say the fabric used was not what was on the original costume at the launch! The new fabric was more of a hand painted print with shades of orange and brown while the costume displayed at the mas camp was gold/bronze, russet brown, orange and tan; I thought the gold added some much needed sparkle to the costume and without it the fabric looked dead. Raiders of the Desert looked cute, the girls I saw had more of a camouflage print going on than just plain kahki. I also saw Arabian Nights, which looked just like on the website, Cacti which was not so bad in the sunlight, Taureg looking good and Sahara Sunset which to me looked cute, except for the headpiece. The section that I thought looked really good was Le Soleil Brule, one thing about the majority of Sonia’s masqueraders is that they have the body to pull off the costume and the ladies I saw in the bronze costume looked really good.

For 2008 it would be nice if Mc Farlane could use real costumes instead of drawings , reason being that I had a somewhat difficult time identifying the sections except for Kaal (looked great) and Royalty (lovely decorations). Being the theme “India” my expectations were that all of the sections would have used fabrics that were light or silky, yet some of the ones I saw were cotton. The ladies dressed like villagers with the water pot, looked nice though the colours varied from the website and the jewelry they wore did not look very “Indian” to me. I guess I had one picture in my head of how the sections would look, and in reality they looked a bit different. All in all, Mc Farlane looked great from the little I saw and he took the Band of the Year title to kudos to him!

Mc Farlane



Harts as usual looked very pretty. They always use the most vibrant shades for their plumes and beads and the costumes are always well decorated. I saw many of the costumes and Atlantis looked gorgeous as well as Aztlan, Oceana and Shangri-la.

Legacy’s costumes looked really nice, I saw Kiowa which has been a favourite from the beginning with me and a few masqueraders in other sections. Of Trini Revellers I saw D Krewe’s entire section, and they looked really good as well as House of Hapsburg which looked great! I only saw a few girls from the section Mai Tai in Pulse 8, costumes looked ok and I saw one guy in Mojito and I liked how that looked. Genesis costumes, well the ones I saw, looked good. I saw Helen of Troy and Briseis which both looked quite good on the ladies I saw wearing them. The one band I did not see at all was Dream Team, though I saw a few photos of one section on trinisoca.com.

Hopefully I can get to see more bands through photos; I know trinisoca.com is first on the ball with Carnival photos and triniscene.com, carnivalscene.com, islandevents.com as well as other online photo websites were all on hand taking lots of photos!


All photos from www.trinisoca.com

TRIBE pics!

TRIBE pics are now up on Trinisoca.com! Check out the full gallery for more pics, as well as photos from Mc Farlane and Harts!

Harts information

In case you Harts masqueraders missed it quicksliver posted about Harts goody bag and some other info after costume collection. You can find the original comment in my Goody Bag post.

The official Harts cart is $500.00 though private carts can be had for cheaper and the "wee wee" truck is $80.00. Listed items in the goody bag are panadol, bandages, deodorant, toothpaste, sports balm, andrews, a 3d Port-of-Spain route map, snacks and crime tips.

For the section lineup check the website, the section runs alphabetically as follows:

Nirvana A, B, AB
Benin AA, BB, CC
Elysian Fields C, D
Zeal DD, EE
Herland E, F, G
Xanadu FF, GG
Aztlan FLH, FLJ
Oceana FLK, FLL, FLM
Shangri-La H, J. K
Olympus L, M
Atlantis MM, NN
Xen N, 0
Arcadia OO, PP
Aaru P, Q, R
White Mountain S, T, U, V
Cokaigne W, X
Paradise Y, Z

Apparently the sections go from A to Z, so Nirvana will be the first section, followed by Benin, Elysian Fields etc. The A, B, AB represents each costume in the section, for instance female version 1, version 2 and male.

Harts Sold Out!!!

In spite of the fact that there is one remaining section on Harts' website this notice appeared in today's Guardian (yes I finally saw it!):


My guess is that in house sections are completely sold out hence the reason for the notice. Well, the theory is that with no Skandalus this year many of the ex- Harts members who migrated to that band have now found themselves back in the fold. The other possible reason for the band being sold out is the fact that the prices are very reasonable compared to other big bands plus the costumes for the most part are gorgeous though a bit dated and formulatic. Whatever the reason for this latest development Harts launched first and have finished first proving that their 40 something years in the business makes them a force still to be reckoned with.

I hope all those masqueraders who shied away from Harts in the past because of preconceived notions might look at the band as a viable option in 2008. To be honest with you if costume prices keep going up Harts is my "fall back" band, since I played with them many years running and would not mind going back if I am priced out of TRIBE and Island People in the future.

Well, Harts was not the only band appearing in today's paper. Pulse 8 took my advice and not only did a full page advertisement this time they are also doing some sort of promotion it seems. Further details are still forthcoming, however they did not listen when I said a FULL COLOUR advertisement. Two out of three isn't that bad I guess!

Two more gone at Harts!

Something strange is going on over at Harts, two more sections have sold out, they are Xen and Oceana.

Of the remaining sections only Herland Orange with small headpiece, Aaru Female turquoise/royal blue and Nirvana are still open. I suspect if Nirvana’s colours were brighter rather than pastel hues that section would have been sold out by now.

Maybe it was the news item on the radio this morning stating that Harts only had five sections remaining, or it could be the fact that Imij and Company will be performing live on the road or that newspaper item today which quoted Harts as having the cheapest prices of the big bands out there. Whatever it is, people are grabbing up the remaining costumes like hot bake! I feel a sense of nostalgia as Harts was my band before discovering the joys of all-inclusive in Poison and I do wish them well. Who knows, maybe if prices keep skyrocketing in the coming years it will be back to Harts for me!

My bet (again) is on Harts for being the first band sold out for Carnival 2007!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

One thing that always amuses me is reading the online West Indian centric Carnival forums predicting doom and gloom for Carnival 2007. I see a big part of that forecasting is based on the fact that bands are yet to “sell out” and we are five weeks away from the greatest show on earth.

Well, from where I stand I can see a few of the big bands have yet to have a section completely sold out namely Pulse 8, Dream Team and Trini Revellers. However, trends seem to be changing as I know many people are only now registering to play mas, and I am speaking about persons that I know personally. Just yesterday my neighbor told me he registered with Trini Revellers in the section “Les Fetes”; he also went Soca in Moka and is going to QRC next week followed by Bishops. I have three friends looking for costumes in Fireman and I know a group who registered last week with Pulse 8, point being that I cannot speak for the overseas masqueraders but local Trinis are getting ready for Carnival!

In spite of all the negative predictions for Carnival 2007 by the forum experts, I see Harts has sold out two more sections! Does anyone else think that they will be the band to completely sell out before all others? Of the remaining five sections all have only female costumes available, yet again these men are not sticking when it comes to mas!

And over at TRIBE nothing has changed, Bat and Majorette are still open for females only and last I checked Island People only had Nubians, Mirage and Cacti available at the mas camp. I don’t think they have updated their website either, a cursory check would show that most, if not all, sections are showing up as unavailable when trying to register.

It remains to be seen if the forecasters are right, that Carnival 2007 will not see as many masqueraders compared to years gone by and with all the confusion surrounding the Savannah and high prices people are turning their backs on the festival.

All I can say is that I have noticed a marked increase in the number of visitors to this blog; yesterday there were over 1050 hits! If that is any indication that Carnival 2007 is in serious jeopardy, well I should just make this my last post, shut down the blog and call it a day! I don’t know about the naysayers, Carnival experts and “insiders” but I have caught the Carnival fever, it is infectious and I am ready to make Carnival 2007 MY best Carnival ever.

edited at 1:17PM; Benin in Harts Sold out!

Harts on Fire!

I should start calling Squeezle "Eye on Harts",her keen eye and swift fingers have pointed out yet another section gone in Harts, Zeal (the one that replaced yellow El Dorado) is sold out!In addition Aaru large headpiece,Benin female,Herland wine,Oceana Blue and Blue/Green are all sold out. I have been sleeping on Harts while sections were queitly being sold out! The remaining sections which are still completely open are Arcadia, which is the cheapest section, Nirvana and Xen all of which are cute costumes at a reasonable price.

What is with this renewed vigour in Harts? It's the fourth day of the new year and they are selling out sections daily! Well I have to say Harts used to the band completely sold out come December back in the day and the few remaining sections are all pretty decent,I would gladly play in any of them, so for anyone who had an eye on Harts , look sharp they are selling out faster than you think.

Bands are selling out people, can you feel the Carnival excitment?!

Sold Out Sections...

Three days into the New Year has brought two sold out section in Harts and TRIBE. Cow Mas and Imp have sold out (finally) with only Bat and Majorette female sections left open, along with Pierrot Grenade Front line. For the life of me I cannot see why Bat is still struggling when that costume is so cute in person, the only reasonable explanation is the back line headpiece and price killed that costume.

Now, on to Harts;11 out of their 19 sections of Harts are sold out, Elysian Fields and Xanadu are now closed. As usual Harts is slow and steady in the game, though I wonder if those remaining eight sections will really sell out before Carnival. Who knows, we still have a month and two weeks to go so anything can happen.

Thanks to squeezle and gtwarrior for being alert bloggers and pointing out the sold out sections to me. Much appreciated!