Two routes for mas bands in Port-of-Spain as Carnival traffic plans announced

Carisa Lee

Re­porter

[email protected]

Rev­ellers will have two route op­tions for the Pa­rade of Se­nior Bands in Port-of-Spain to­day and to­mor­row.

Ac­cord­ing to a map re­leased by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA), there will be a tra­di­tion­al route—in­cor­po­rat­ing Pic­cadil­ly Street—and an al­ter­na­tive route, which by­pass­es Pic­cadil­ly Street and, on Tues­day, di­verts to the So­cadrome at the Jean Pierre Com­plex.

The tra­di­tion­al route be­gins at South Quay, pro­ceeds along Cha­con Street, Pic­cadil­ly Street and Park Street to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, con­tin­ues on­to Ari­api­ta Av­enue and con­cludes at the Grand Stand.

The al­ter­na­tive route for the 2026 pa­rade al­so starts at South Quay in the Port area, then moves along Wright­son Road, Cha­con Street, Tra­garete Road, Ari­api­ta Av­enue and in­to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, end­ing at the So­cadrome at the Jean Pierre Com­plex.

For J’Ou­vert in the cap­i­tal, five zones have been des­ig­nat­ed, feed­ing in­to the main pa­rade route. Route One be­gins near West­ern Main Road/Mu­cu­rapo Road; Route Two near West­ern Main Road/Car­los Street; Route Three in down­town Port-of-Spain; Route Four near Laven­tille/East Dry Riv­er; and Route Five in East Port-of-Spain.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice for the Spe­cialised Sup­port Unit, Bri­an Sood­een, con­firmed that traf­fic plans re­main as pub­lished.

Two-way traf­fic will be in ef­fect around the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah from 2 am, while traf­fic re­stric­tions will be im­ple­ment­ed around the Port-of-Spain Prison from 6 pm on Sun­day to 5 am on Wednes­day.

In cen­tral Trinidad, mul­ti­ple routes have been out­lined for ar­eas in­clud­ing Ch­agua­nas, Cou­va, Bras­so, St He­le­na and Freeport.

The Ch­agua­nas Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee said bands from var­i­ous di­rec­tions will con­verge on the Car­ni­val Vil­lage via Ram­saran Street, us­ing the Main Road, South­ern Main Road (Busy Cor­ner), Mulchan Seuchan Road and Bhim Street be­fore cir­cu­lat­ing through Ch­agua­nas and re­turn­ing along their re­spec­tive routes.

In San Fer­nan­do, the of­fi­cial San­do Car­ni­val 2026 route, as out­lined by the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion, be­gins near the Oil­fields Work­ers’ Trade Union (OW­TU) build­ing by Soong’s Great Wall Restau­rant.

The route con­tin­ues along Cir­cu­lar Road and Roy­al Road on­to Cof­fee Street, turns on­to Cipero Street and the Rien­zi Kir­ton High­way, pass­es the judg­ing point at Skin­ner Park, then pro­ceeds along In­de­pen­dence Av­enue and High Street be­fore re­turn­ing to Cof­fee Street and end­ing at Carib Street.

The judg­ing point in San Fer­nan­do will be at Skin­ner Park’s Sec­ond Class Grounds, with ma­jor pass­ing points in­clud­ing Oa­sis Gar­den Ter­race, the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA), and San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal.