Official events on the Tobago Carnival agenda began on Thursday night with the Monarchs of Mas competition at Market Square, Scarborough, where the grandeur of traditional mas met the creativity of Tobagonians to produce colourful works of art on stage.
The competition featured ten contestants, all female, who portrayed their creations with flair and energy.
Emerging victorious was Nicole Moses-Beckles with her portrayal of “Looking for Mr John Boulay”, a well-dressed lady riding a donkey in search of a certain man from Charlotteville.
“Honestly, the inspiration behind my costume came from Mr Jesse Taylor; that is him sitting there, and I am the mas makers, that is, Patrick Mills and Susan Harriet in Trinidad came together and came up with the burrokeet because October Carnival Monarch of Mas is about traditional mas rather than national carnival.”
She walked away with the TT$30,000 cash prize.
While there was only one winner, the dedication and commitment to the mas were hard to miss among the other competitors.
For veteran masqueraders like Janelle Eastman, her presentation of “Queen Moola” was about reviving forms of traditional mas that are slipping away, such as the cow mas.
“I researched to figure out which one is the best costume to bring. I have to bring something rare that they really don’t have or something that is dying that they don’t use in Tobago, so then I started to Google traditional characters and I end up picking this cow.”
Then there were others like Leslie-Ann Benjamin, who took the liberty of combining the popular sailor mas with features of Tobago’s natural underwater beauty to produce the “Dance of the Fire Coral”, which was entirely handmade by her.
“This year we were like, ‘Hey, this is the first time we want to do Monarch of Mas,’ and I just had an inspiration about a fire coral, and I knew that I wanted to keep it in the traditional mas as well.”
Meanwhile, others combined Tobago heritage with their portrayals, such as Marisa Ward-Robley, in her depiction of “Bound in the Past”.
“I am portraying the past of the 1950s, 1960s. The way our women used to dress back then, you know, dainty, of course. I have been seeing mas, but I haven’t been seeing anyone doing anything to carry us back to our history. No one has been coming forward to portray our past, the past the way we used to dress.”
So what did the audience think about what they saw displayed on stage?
“It was very great to be back in time from long ago when they had the La Diablesse and all the other mas they had and the donkey and all that stuff. It is wonderful. That’s our heritage.”
“I thought the mas was beautiful. I think they did a good job in designing their costumes. It was very beautiful. I enjoyed it.”
“Enjoyed it a lot; it was beautiful, everyone is gorgeous, the costumes are amazing, and it’s a very good experience for me.”
Tobago Carnival events continue with RoxGlo in Roxborough on Friday night, where mud mas is expected to be a main feature.