RICHARD MONTANO and Laverne Smith are the 2026 Jouvert King and Queen respectively. The pair were crowned after the ole mas competition that heralded the start of the Merry Monarch at South Quay in Port of Spain.
A small crowd in the Lord Kitchener Stands and on the pavement enjoyed the traditional old mas competition, a staple in the Carnival calendar. The event, however, has been attracting fewer audiences over the years.
Montano and Smith took jabs at current affairs in the country, particularly politics, to win over the judges. Montano’s presentation, “U-N See Running D-Corn-Tree”, gave a comical display of a corn tree being operated by remote control, with Montano seen running after it as the corn tree continued to elude him. He also won Most Creative.
Montano, who was also crowned Jouvert King last year, commented:
“I am feeling good. The presentation is well thought of. I will be a king until I die. I’ve been following the politics from Florida, so this idea came about since last year November, and I said I will come down from Florida and play this particular character mas,” Montano said.
The old mas veteran said he hoped to see an increase in prize money, stating that both he and Smith would receive $2,500 for placing first in the competition. He said while it appeared that interest in ole mas was declining, he believed it could improve.
“I am seeing that it is getting smaller and smaller. I guess the interest into ole mas is not as before; but it could get better with a little more organisation of prize money to draw more people coming to play. I think they can bump up the prize to $4,000, something that someone could buy material to portray something of more quality,” Montano said, adding that ole mas is his passion and he intends to continue presenting his portrayals.
Smith, meanwhile, scored a hat-trick of wins, having won the title in 2024 and 2025. She said that as a Social Studies student who signed up to sit the subject for CSEC examinations, it opened her up to current affairs.
Her presentation tackled an issue that prompted public outcry after Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar doubled fines for road traffic and motor vehicle offences, with one man facing penalties up to $19,000. Dressed as a traffic warden, Smith’s presentation, “Ah Fine-ing He, She and Everybody”, saw her display several cars with various infractions. At one point, she even rolled out lengths of paper stapled together to represent the hefty fines she administered.
Smith said her aim was to choose a topic that most people were familiar with. “I am feeling great. I am really thankful. I’m in my 50s and I literally just sat Social Studies last year, and what I learned is that the topics we cover in Social Studies are social issues that affect everybody. So everybody is complaining about being fined $19,000, $10,000, $20,000; so I tried to get a topic that everybody is familiar with,” she said.
Close to 30 ole mas revellers participated this year, including veterans Margaret Montano and Phillip Montano.
Downtown Carnival Committee chairman, Councillor Clint Baptiste, said $300,000 in prizes would be distributed, starting with the King and Queen of Jouvert. Citing a cut in subvention, he said:
“It looks as though it may be a 30% to 40% drop from 2025 to now. So we’ve seen it reduced over the last couple of years. To help with that, the city has partnered with the NCC to split the advertising money for the festivities. Unfortunately, we had a cut in the subvention, but we maintain a relationship with the NCC in terms of advertising, so we proposed to use some of that money to supplement some of the losses we have received.”
He added: “We want to encourage persons to come down to the oldest Carnival in the country. We have a safe and enjoyable environment. We noticed an uptick in sales of tickets. On Carnival Tuesday, we will also have entertainment, and we are encouraging persons to come back down to Port of Spain.”
Chief Judge Ezra Joseph said the standard of competition for ole mas has always been high. “These people are creative; as Trinidadians, everything we laugh at, they research and turn these things into fun. If you are aware of what is happening in T&T, you will see it here. This is one of the most intricate parts of the Jouvert competition. It’s wise and beneficial for this competition to continue, and we are hoping that we will have much more people coming and using their initiative. Come forward and do it for our culture. It is very important to us; we need to maintain that.”
