Glasgow wants in on Carnival promos

Promoter Randy Glasgow, who wears the hat of interim chairman of the newly formed TT Promoters Association (TTPA), lent support to what National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters had to say about attracting more Carnival visitors in an interview with Newsday that was published yesterday.

Glasgow also wanted to add his own opinion.

He said: “We welcome the statements by NCC chairman Winston Peters. He's on the ball with everything he said.

"However, NCC must engage the promoters and other Carnival stakeholders to unite and defend our Carnival product.

“It must be said, promoters are the biggest stake holders in Carnival. A blind man could see, without 100 promoters’ events, Carnival wouldn’t be Carnival.”

Glasgow said for several years the country has been the undisputed mecca for carnival in the Caribbean region, North America and Europe, and islands in the region like Barbados, St Vincent, Grenada, St Lucia, Antigua, and more recently, Jamaica deferred to TT as the unspoken Carnival boss. He said those nations have observed, studied and eventually engaged TT promoters, all in an attempt to recreate a piece of the "greatest show on earth."

As a result, Glasgow said: “These destinations' carnivals have flourished. Unfortunately, due to a number of economic and bureaucratic factors, our Carnival product has stood still, and in many cases regressed. Perhaps this is the reason several of these islands feel confident enough to declare their festivals the best in the region."

But, he stressed, "TTPA and its membership are ready to work with NCC to make TT Carnival number one again.”