Gadsby-Dolly: Carnival reasonably enjoyable

COMMUNITY Development, Culture and the Arts Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly yesterday described this year’s Carnival as “reasonably enjoyable.” She also said that in terms of infrastructure and process, the Carnival went smoothly.

Planning, she added, has already begun for Carnival 2019, with a view to using the Carnival 2017 economic impact assessment report being done by the Economic Development Advisory Board. The delayed final report, Gadsby-Dolly said, should be available by June. Although the report was stymied, “by the lack of forthcoming information from all stakeholders”, the report nevertheless is at an advanced stage.

“We at the ministry, have been working with them and will continue to do so. We anticipate we should be able to get that final report by June. We are working towards that target and once we have that, it would be able to inform some of the decisions going forward with respect to the marketing of Carnival, which is another area that the National Carnival Commission (NCC) is determined to make a much better effort in 2019,” she said.

Gadsdy-Dolly said some of the report’s information would also be useful in planning the event of Carnival and how certain changes are made. This year saw a marked improvement in Dimanche Gras, she said. “With respect to things that can be improved this year, we saw a marked improvement, I think of Dimanche Gras in terms in terms of what last year’s presentation was and we are already in discussions with the NCC on how we can improve next year.” The commission is looking at the J’Ouvert route for 2019 in light of concerns expressed by home-owners this year and in previous years. “We have started discussions and I know the NCC plans to engage some of the stakeholders with respect to seeing what can be done so even while people enjoy themselves for J’Ouvert, it is not done at the detriment of anyone else. Those are some of the discussions that have started to take place already with respect to Carnival 2019,” Gadsby-Dolly said.

There were very little complaints, she added, about the route and congestion. She said this year’s traditional mas at the Savannah on Carnival Monday was even better subscribed than last year.