Carnival Queen left waiting

DISRESPECT and poor stage management are being blamed for the inability of mas band Moko Somokow’s King and Queen being able to cross the savannah stage at the Dimanche Gras on Sunday night.

Designer for the band Alan Vaughn expressed his disappointment in a Facebook post: “What a pappy show. We left without performing. Four hours of our time and energy wasted. Show some respect.”

Photographer Maria Nunes further explained, in her own Facebook post, that the king and queen could not cross the stage because of confetti which made it too slippery for the masqueraders.

“Producers of Carnival shows repeatedly demonstrate they don't have a clue what's involved in moko jumbie performance and safety.

“We say we love our culture, but actions speak much louder than words. We not serious. We only interested in ‘culture’ and ‘heritage’ as window dressing.”

She said the Moko Smokow Queen of Carnival, Mariella Shadow of Consciousness, portrayed by Shynel Brizan, and its second-placed King, A Pea¬cock Be¬comes The Win¬dows Of The Uni¬verse portrayed by Tekel Syl¬van were waiting at the Queen’s Park Savannah for four hours.

“They were ready on time for their performance and were waiting in the wings to go on when a whole lot of confetti was spewed on to the stage making it dangerous for them.

“They asked for it to be cleared, were told this would happen, and kept waiting and waiting and waiting while performer after performer went on with sporadic attempts to clear some of the debris, with some performances adding even more confetti.

“They eventually had to call it quits because they were up on their stilts for about 90 minutes, a mere 30 meters away from the stage. There is a limit to what can be endured in the face of such disrespect.”

Nunes said the band’s drummers drove for two hours from south to be at the show.

“Dimanche Gras missed out, the televised audience missed out. This kind of thing really makes you deeply sad at the state of the management of Carnival. There is profound irony that in the background of the first photo it says ‘Proudly TT. The spirit of Carnival really taking some heavy licks,” Nunes said.