Sinbad is here, and St. Thomas is rocking. The Sinbad Soul Music Festival began Wednesday evening with a mini Carnival at the West Indian Company Ltd. dock at Havensight.
Several large tents were set up to house some three dozen handicraft vendors and their wares. The goods ranged from ceramics to jewelry to painting to foods. One of the most extensive displays was candy, jams and guava berry liquor. Gooseberry and tamarind sticks, sugar cookies, tarts of all sorts, and mango jam were but a few of the delicious items offered for tasting.
The main event was the parade. It led off with the ever popular Rising Stars, followed by amazingly dexterous moko jumbie, and the Inferno Troupe decked out in serious Trinidad styles. This traditional threesome was followed by more steel pans, and representatives from most of the major troupes from last months Carnival.
Lining the street some five to six deep were small children in front of parents and friends. Hundreds of people simply walked the WICO area seeing and being seen, while the governor and a handful of dignitaries dutifully sat in the reviewing stand as the marchers filed by.
The big incentive was posing in front of the spotlights to earn prime time exposure on national television.
The mood of the event was strictly family backyard. Even the small children were quiet and relatively controlled as they watched the parade with short frolics to the tune of the steel pan.
Truly it was a night to see and be seen as a just-right number of St. Thomians and visitors enjoyed the food, shopping, spectacle and visiting. Carnival at night, a most enjoyable event with which to start off the weekend.
