There’s often talk about the younger generation leading the charge into the future and one Mas Band has found a way to inculcate the nation’s youth into a holistic Carnival Workshop.
On Sunday, the Spirit Mas Band started a one-day Carnival Workshop for children to engage them in all things related to the industry.
Event Coordinator, Cheleste Peterson, said a DJ workshop was a major part of that.
“DJ-ing is something that the Carnival industry cannot do without and we wanted to make sure that the kids had the opportunity to learn something like that. It’s not a forum that’s easy to find. We had to search far and wide. Well I had to search far and wide through Trinidad to find the best DJ-ing school. We use Rockstar Academy and I mean, they did amazing. The kids had a blast and they definitely want to come back.”
Chief Executive Officer of Spirit Mas, Adrian Scoon said the entire initiative is to engage them at a young age into growing the Carnival industry.
“I think it’s important to keep stimulating our ecosystem and understanding that our greatest resource is us as Trinidadians. We are the most creative people on the planet.”
The workshop sparked a lot of interest from the children, including stilt walking.
“We had makeup, we had steel pan, we had Soca and cultural bands. We also had stilt walking, which was actually one of the kids’ favourite classes for the entire day, we had songwriting. And we had design, where they actually got to make parts of their own costumes.”
This is Spirit Mas’ first Children’s Carnival Workshop, and Mr. Scoon assured that it will be a staple every year.
“There’s different classes, different breakout sessions that we have to put together. Then we have to find the talent to be able to bestow that knowledge on the children and then the talent that actually wants to come and volunteer. So we really were passionate about this project from the beginning and we have great people that work with us and they put it together, and it’s just a magical day for us so far .”
The event took place at Queen’s Hall in Port of Spain and involved three foundations and scores of children.