DCFA’s The Old Yard Draws Crowds for Powerful Celebration of Living Carnival Heritage
In his work, The Carnivals of Trinidad and Tobago: From Inception to year 2000, author and historian Michael Anthony described the resurgence of J’ouvert in the 1960s as “vigorous and resplendent.”
“All the old bubbling enthusiasm of the traditional jour ouvert came to the surface,” he wrote, “and, strange to say, the masquerade even matched the old-time flavour of that first post-war jour ouvert of 1946.” Anthony was describing not only a return to traditional cultural expression, but a reclamation of energy and enjoyment. Every year, that same resplendent vigour of traditional carnival, is reincarnated at The Old Yard.
UP IN THE AIR HIGHER THAN THAT: Soca legend Ronnie McIntosh showed the crowd he could still make both the older and younger generations move to the music.
A very patriotic member of Kaisokah Moko Jumbies combines balance, rhythm, and dance. These practitioners move with extraordinary skill on stilts as high as 15 feet.
On Sunday, February 8, UWI St Augustine’s Department of Creative and Festival Arts transformed its Gordon Street campus into a vibrant space of Carnival’s past Old Yard 2026. Held from noon to 6 pm under the patronage of Campus Principal Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, the event welcomed families, students, and cultural enthusiasts into a space where tradition was not only displayed, but actively lived.
Recognised by UNESCO as an International Best Arts Education Practice, The Old Yard recreates the atmosphere of historic communal yards. The grassy quadrangle beneath the DCFA’s flamboyant trees was reimagined as a Gayelle through murals, tapestry, elaborate set design, and bleachers that quickly filled with patrons, including large groups of secondary school students.
Audiences were greeted by classic kaiso selections and encouraged to sing along, setting a communal tone for the afternoon. A major highlight was the inaugural Extempo Clash featuring master wordsmiths Winston “Gypsy” Peters and Myron Bruce. Their lyrical exchanges blended humour, social commentary, and verbal agility, drawing enthusiastic responses from the crowd. Revered calypso icon Ronnie Mc Intosh added to the atmosphere with a special performance that celebrated the enduring power of traditional song.
Throughout the day, patrons encountered parades and performances of traditional mas characters. Familiar Sunday yard scenes transformed into interactive theatre as jammettes, baby dolls, sailors, police, and thief mingled with playful figures such as nurse, doctor, dog and lamp post. Performance collective Arts in Action dramatised the origins of Carnival, combining storytelling and movement to deepen the educational experience.
Special focus was placed on the art of bois or stick fighting, with demonstrations by renowned practitioners Keegan Taylor and Felix Defour. Their performances highlighted the discipline, rhythm, and historical significance of a tradition rooted in resistance and survival. The DCFA drummers added a powerful sonic backdrop, engaging the audience in call and response that echoed across the yard. Patrons also enjoyed local food and craft on sale, completing a multi-sensory experience grounded in community and tradition.
The 2026 edition formed part of DCFA’s legacy celebrations, marking 20 years as a department and 40 years in existence. By honouring cultural custodians while inviting new generations to participate, The Old Yard reaffirmed its role as a vital bridge between heritage and contemporary expression.
However, The Old Yard is more than just an interactive event. It is an important teaching tool for students of DCFA’s Carnival Studies programme who work with staff to plan and manage the festival, as well as students in others units such as Theatre Arts who reimagine and perform as traditional Carnival characters. Many of these students go on to become Carnival professionals both in front of and behind the curtain, ensuring not only that T&T has a human resource for the creative and culture industry, but also an information resource on the history and traditions of this vital aspect of our culture.
FIRE IN THE SKY: A member of the group Les Reines Djabbes performs a pyrotechnic wonder. These Jab Jabs are known as the “Home-grown Devils”, as many of them are DCFA alumni.
It is the living archive of the resurgence that delighted Anthony in his work. “This jour ouvert of 1965 revived many aspects of jour ouvert that were thought dead. Even tamboo bamboo bands were seen on the streets.... There was an abundance of rope-and-twine devils, moko jumbies, and many Dame Lorraine characters.”
Today, over 60 years later, The Old Yard DCFA is giving new audiences a sometimes sweet and sometimes shocking, taste of traditional Carnival.
A Dame Lorraine makes her way through the yard, demanding attention. With her bright dress, hat, parasol, and more curves than Lady Young Road, this traditional Carnival character is a beloved satirical performance of the European lady of the colonial era.
Under the mask is Shauntelle Jones, a Theatre Arts graduate from DCFA and Artistic Programme Manager of Arts-In-Action, the department’s public education programme. She says her performance ensures that Dame Lorraine’s “history, symbolism and social context is properly researched and represented not only from information found in books or the internet, but also from the persons who have been portraying the character for many years.” Traditional mas, she says, “is living history that teaches, challenges and celebrates who we are, preserving the stories of our ancestors.”
Jones has been performing since primary school in student plays, motivated by her passion for the arts and disinterest in an eight-to-four occupation.
“The DCFA deepened my understanding of the arts, more specifically Trinidad and Tobago’s art forms, and seeing them as transformative and also as a vehicle for cultural retention,” she says of her student experience. “Through Arts-in-Action, I see first-hand how creative expression empowers communities and builds bridges between what we are taught in schools and what we must learn from the community.”
