Ibiza revellers take to the sidewalk at the road march.

by Andre Jebbinson, Staff Reporter

You just never know what you will see at Bacchanal. Surely, the glitter, skimpy costumes, big trucks moving at a slow pace and dancing are all a part of it.

This year for the first time, Bacchanal introduced a live band which added a lot more flavour to the groove. Anyone who had not seen the truck on which the band was playing might have thought they were listening to a recording, but a closer look would reveal the drummer, the bass player and the vocalist. It was surreal.

"It is a nice change to what we normally have. They should have some more bands and DJs so we can have something different on the truck," one female reveller said.

The music was pumping in a different way this year and down below on the ground, a few odd details occurred. And even though the aged, the bulgy and the tiny tots have always come out for Bacchanal, there were a few extremes.

THE STAR tried to find the oldest person at Bacchanal on Sunday and found one woman who was 67 years old. At that age, she proved she may be old but far from being cold. This is not a woman who simply stood in one place and looked on; she was walking right along the path with everybody else.

"I am here for the same reason as anybody else," she told The STAR.

There were also a few other masqueraders who were in their 60s. The youngest person THE STAR found was Aiden who was only 18 months old. He was with his parents, of course.

Then another age situation came about when another boy, who gave his name as Romaine, was right in the mix tackling women who were old enough to be his mother or his grandmother. Romaine is only 13 years old.

Of course, during the carnival season, some body parts came to light that would not normally make the cut outside the season. Topping the list was the battle of the bulge. Two spare tyres are excusable. Three hardly made it through. But four, come on!

Ask anybody though and they will tell you this is all a part of what makes carnival special. Special in a way that the skinny will feel comfortable being exposed and the not-so-skinny feeling many, many pounds lighter.

Surely, the moving bar on one of the trucks made it easier for the revellers to lose control and that was a cool feature of Bacchanal. The coolest feature, though, might have been the colossal Catherine's Peak bottle that sprayed a cool mist on revellers for the entire journey. When the temperature got too hot, the revellers were under the bottle cooling down.

The season is over and much recovery will be needed. But many will surely be anticipating this time of the year in 2008.

Miss Jamaica Universe 2005, Raquel Wright (right), poses with other Bacchanal babes at carnival road parade 2007.

Rasta reveller: This man will not be held down by tradition. He was one of the most colourful revellers in the road parade.

Revellers in their Island Dreams costumes enjoy the party as they rock beside the 'big truck' during the Bacchanal road march on Sunday.

A reveller at Bacchanal. - Norman Grindley photos

Men in drag is nothing new on stage, but at carnival? This 'man' brought many contradictions to the parade.

Even the little ones found a way to enjoy the carnival party.