Somewhere in the early ’80s, Tradewinds came to Guyana to take part in Mashramani with a substitute bass player, Burman Scott, from Cayman. It was his first time here. In the Mash Day parade, as the float turned from Church into Irving Street, Burman was facing south. When he turned around and saw the thousands jamming the roadway ahead, he froze with his hands locked on the guitar, his mouth agape. “I have never seen a crowd like that,” he told me later. This year Mashramani came and went with another huge turnout like that, or bigger, and with spectacular costumes leaving an impression that must have heartened the organizers. Mash has had its ups and downs since I played in it more than 20 years ago, but the Festival this year seemed to hit a peak both in terms of artistic output and in patronage; the organizers must have been pleased.
But then the other shoe fell when, at the height of the Festival,
