NCC to produce Dimanche Gras

The National Carnival Commission (NCC) would be the producer of Dimanche Gras for Carnival 2019.

NCC chairman Winston "Gypsy" Peters said the board and executive has talented members, including himself, with the experience to produce the show and the commission would not be hiring anyone to stage it.

“We have Colin Lucas (interim NCC CEO), Davlin Thomas (deputy chairman) Winston Peters (chairman). You have a whole lot of people who are producers. We have been doing Carnival all our lives,” he said on Friday.

Peters said with the establishment of the North Park, the Dimanche Gras would be a show, as the Calypso Monarch and King and Queen of Carnival finals would no longer be the highlight of the event on Carnival Sunday (March 3).

“So, I mean, what else do you need. We need to incorporate other people which we have. But for the first time, the NCC has people who are within the fold of the NCC that are integrally associated with the production of Carnival.”

Peters said given the wealth of experience of some of the NCC members “we could actually direct Carnival as we so choose because we know about Carnival collectively.”

He added: If we look at the collective experience we have inside of there, both at home and abroad, we don’t really need any set of anything.”

This year, the event was produced by Dr Rudolph Ottley, a Carnival researcher and manager of the Divas Calypso Cabaret International tent, at an estimated cost of $1.3 million.

It was titled The Power and the Glory: From Mucurapo Stadium to the Grand Savannah. Last year, the event was produced by musician Carl “Beaver” Henderson.

In 2016, the show was plagued with production blunders which prompted then NCC chairman Kenny De Silva to issue a public apology.