Artist Che Lovelace loves J’Ouvert and that love translated into his own J’Ouvert band, Friends for the Road.

The six-year-old band launched its 2025 presentation, One for All, on November 29 at Calabash Garden, Tragarete Road, Port of Spain.

Tiy Cross-Lovelace, one of the band's executive, spoke to Newsday about the recent launch and its plans for the annual Carnival starter.

Che Lovelace was at Art Basel, Miami spreading Trinidad and Tobago culture and art, internationally, she said.

The band introduced its Bring Yuh Mas initiative in 2024 and hopes to expand it next year. Cross-Lovelace said the initiative created a space for young designers to bring their costumes.

“So we are creating a merchandising opportunity for them, also platforming them and creating innovation and creativity in J’Ouvert.”

The band also hopes this will encourage people to be themselves and express themselves in ways they see fit.

“We want people to know in Friends for the Road you have a space to be yourself and enjoy yourself – safely, of course and respectfully, of course. We definitely want to encourage a lot of self-expression,” she said.

In 2024, the band had a “record-breaking” 2,000 masqueraders and it hopes to stay within that come 2025, she said.

Lovelace has always been a lover of J’Ouvert, Cross-Lovelace said. He has been in J’Ouvert for over 15 years, starting with the band Lillibud.

He then became a founding member of another band, but left and started Friends for the Road in 2018.

The band's early-bird packages are sold out, but friend-price packages are available.

Friends for the Road offers an all-inclusive experience which includes bar trucks and the Laventille Rhythm section guiding it through the streets of Woodbrook, St Clair, Port of Spain and the Savannah.

[caption id="attachment_1125651" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Laventille Rhythm Section -[/caption]

The band also supplies its own kind of mud, from a secret location only Lovelace knows.

“It is then mixed, purified and warmed, so it is warm to the touch and you do not feel cold to the touch on J’Ouvert morning,” Cross-Lovelace said.

The band wants to encourage unity through the band, J’Ouvert, and TT, hence the theme One for All.

Friends for the Road will begin J’Ouvert 2025 with a Mud Lime on February 23 and then its full J’Ouvert experience on March 3.

The post Che Lovelace's Friends for the Road J’Ouvert band launched appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.