Chutney Brass is now Chutneyland

CHUTNEY BRASS is now Chutneyland. One of Carnival’s mainstays has re-branded itself for the 2019 season. In a release issued to media, its organisers, Randy Glasgow Productions (RGP) said the time had come “when even the biggest and most popular of events must evolve and transition to a higher level. RGP has therefore decided to lay the Chutney Brass Festival to rest and introduce for Carnival 2019 a new and much more dynamic event titled, Chutneyland.”

Chutneyland will take place at Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba on February 23 and “this new concept will in fact be a full-blown TT/Bollywood-styled production staged in a city-like space created by RPG.” British-born Bollywood Music star Jasmin Walia was announced as the event’s first international guest. The release said, “Her International hit song, Bum Diggy, which she collaborated with top British producer/performer Zack Knight, attained so far over 500 million views and likes on YouTube and other social media platforms.”

Its organiser is expected to release more details about Chutneyland in the coming weeks. Chutney Brass which existed for 16 years, the release said, in its first year, “attracted over 10,000 patrons” and since then, the numbers had doubled “with a good percentage of that” being people from other countries.

It added that Chutney Brass, in short time, became the largest platform for East Indian culture outside of India.

“The event also facilitated the coming together of the several ethnicities of Trinbago coming together in a melting pot of culture. The event not only saw the most popular East Indian artistes, bands and dancers on the stage, but there were also performances by top soca artistes, folk and Afrocentric dancers, even rock bands over the years,” it said.

The release said Chutney Brass’ inception saw “an insurgence of chutney soca artistes and bands coming into mainstream” such as veteran bands like as Dil-E-Nadan, Trevini (now KI and the Band) and Gayatones. These bands were able to expand their fan base locally to the Caribbean, Europe and even South Asia.

Over the years, the former event also birthed and developed other bands such as Sally Sagram and Xtreme, The Bemrz Empire and Ravi B & Karma among others.

The organisers said, “Chutneyland will be much more than an event featuring artistes and bands on stage merely performing songs” but will activate all five senses of the patrons who will enjoy the best the island has to offer in sight (aesthetics and design of venue), taste (local and international cuisine), sound (music by the nation’s top artistes and musicians, special invited guests from different genres ) and much more. Performances will be enhanced by troupes of dancers, cutting-edge lighting and effects, the highest quality sound systems and more.”