Carnival Tuesday with K2K

As I said in the previous post, K2K definitely delivered for 2013. Their presentation, The Human Race was well executed, and there was a clear improvement in their management.  It was a brillant idea for them to begin on the Avenue, move to downtown, then to Picadilly greens (yes, we went to the Greens), and end at the QPS. Although our wait at the savannah was almost 3 hours, it was not as bad as some of the big bands. The blame here should solely rest on the NCC and NCBA.  Band congestion is a longstanding problem which has been getting worse. There's an entire year to plan for Carnival and you would swear they only began the week before. Lots of money was spent on retreats, consultants, breakfast meetings, staff, big salaries, consultations with stakeholders, and engineers and NOBODY came up with a solution? It is clear that all bands cannot cross the QPS stage on both days- let's start there....My solution is simply to let some bands cross on Monday and some on Tuesday...

Another issue on Tuesday was the internal overlapping of K2K's music which was extremely annoying.  Again, we only needed 1 music truck for a couple hundred people. Overall, I give big kudos to the Normans (and Peter) for going at it another year and ignoring naysayers like myself.  If you were looking for a band to get on bad and party the whole day, K2K was not that band, but if you were serious about parading a fabulous costume, yes, K2K is that band.  I had a great time and I loved that only one other masquerader and I wore the same costume.  What about next year? I hope so because I know it's going to keep getting better. I am especially considering doing a bigger costume in 2014 or the following year; it's about time right...

Since this goody bag is so important, I'm going to begin there.  I know I've been sounding "older" these days but I don't get what's the big deal with the goody bag. Poison never gave me any goody bag and all Legends ever gave me was the costume. Seriously, how many of these goodies do you actually use? Anyways, the goody bag was nice- cher mere samples, degree deodorant, sacha gift voucher, k2k mug, messenger bag, 2 local magazines, and a mini picnic set .  Good heavens! there was no soldanza plantain chips or digicel rags...dammit I want a refund. Oh and just for clarification- no one actually brought the picnic set on the road....

The costume for Skeptic was really nice but I thought it would have stood out more. Looking back at my pics, I looked a little like I was wearing a pink big bird outfit. In retrospect, I should have chosen something more slimming.  Yet, it held up really well even though some persons complained that the corset's zipper broke.  Luckily there was the option to lace it up. Unlike the Monday blazer, I was not hot in the the Tuesday costume.  Earlier that morning, I found the top hat and shoulder piece to be uncomfortable so I ditched them.  To my dismay, I was probably the only person in the section without these pieces, but bless the masqueraders who figured out how to attach that shoulder piece.  The one thing about K2K maqueraders is that they are very serious about their costumes.   Honestly, K2k's strength will always be their costume design and quality.  And yes, we were one of those bands wearing burkas on the stage. I want a refund for so much cloth....

Another improvement this year was the security. The band was pretty small so keeping masqueraders within the ropes was not too challenging.  But what I'm most uspset about is the lack of personal bodyguards.  I mean I paid over tt$5000 and no personal security?  I want a refund...

Like Monday, the drinks were not an issue.  The hubby who drank Hennessy was pleased that he was able to get it throughout the day.  This is in no way directed to any specific band, but the coconut water was flowing like it came from the skies...The disappointment was in the lack of an actual coconut vendor chopping nuts and scooping jelly...Please address this K2K...

We got the same chinese lunch on Tuesday from Wok and Roll and Church's chicken in the later afternoon.  However, we should be upset over the lack of snacks.  Every blasted band got soldanza plantain chips, and we got nada.  How can we play mas with only breakfast, lunch and a second lunch?  You are lucky some of us didn't pass out from starvation.  You need to do better. In fact next year we need a truck solely dedicated to snacks...

K2K chose not to have a rest stop. I mean how dare they torture us by having us on the road playing mas for the entire day with only a rest bus and a mobile spa.  How dare they didn't provide blankets for us to lounge.  Where were the makeup stations K2k? Shame on you. And why did our foot and shoulder massages in the mobile spa only last for 15 minutes? No facials? No body scrubs? We need answers or a refund...

The cher mere mobile spa

Okay, I guess by now you can sense my sarcasm.  I admit I was one of those masqueraders who obsessed over every little mas detail (just read my earlier posts), but is that what playing mas is really about? I don't get this paying for "an experience".  Besides an artistic costume, drinks, music, and good road management, what else do we want?  I think some masqueraders are getting carried away and missing the spirit of Carnival- what about that complete feeling of abandonment for those 2 days? The feeling that nothing else matters- just dancing, wining, and chipping to one of the best music in the world; there's no concern about work, school, bills, family issues or any other personal problems...Mas is also a performance- an embodiment of a character on the streets which becomes our stage while making powerful statements.  The legendary Peter Minshall put it best when he said that it's not about the literal costumes but creating ways to express human energy...