Tobago stakeholders: Perfect time to split Carnival

THE Prime Minister's cancellation of Carnival 2021 due to covid19 has again revived the discussion of whether Tobago should host its own Carnival celebrations in the latter part of the year.

Dr Rowley said on Monday, "I see no future for Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago in the months ahead...unless there's some dramatic change in the wind that will blow across us by Christmas, Carnival is not on."

Carnival stakeholders in Tobago have repeatedly complained that Tobago's Carnival has reached its ceiling and suffers in the shadow of its bigger and more glamorous Trinidad counterpart.

Addressing Rowley's announcement on Monday, co-chairman of the Tobago Mas Bands Leaders Terrence Sandiford said a separate Tobago Carnival is something he has been lobbying for since 1998.

He said 22 years ago the island was able to host a separate event known as Tobago Fest which was held in October. He said the event was cancelled in 2006 by then chief secretary Orville London, after several violent incidents during the J’Ouvert celebrations. Since then, efforts to market Tobago Fest as a national event have failed.

Sandiford said: “The only reason why it wasn’t continued is because I chose the wrong political party (to support), if I was a PNM-mite it would have been (hosted) right now. That is the reality of it.”

He said a separate Carnival in Tobago would bring immense economic benefit to the island especially as events worldwide continue to be cancelled because of the pandemic.

“Covid19 has even put a blank to the Rio carnival... If we’re serious about it, we have to live with covid19, but we have to get around it. It is ideal now for us to be planning for our separate Carnival 2021, we have sufficient time that we can do something comprehensive, separate and apart from Trinidad."

He said Carnival activities on the island, in its existing state, “cannot get bigger or better.”

He said proper marketing to woo the international market is key.

“We don’t have anything right now that encourages visitors, we need to do a comprehensive rescheduling of our tourism product and have it ready for 2021. This is the time for all the planning, but if it is we’re sitting down and going through the same process year after year stifling the Festivals Commission, stifling calypsonians, stifling this one and that one, the same thing would happen again.”

Chairman of TUCO Tobago Ainsley King said covid19 has caught everyone surprised.

“You have to give this whole situation time, a situation that came out of the blue, no warning. People are still trying to get to understand what is happening, so the main thing right now will have to be time, you have to give time to see what will happen around the dark corner,” he said.

He added: “That Tobago Carnival discussion... it's too late. Tobago hasn’t been benefiting anything from previous Carnival. Tobago has been in the dark, so this discussion is really late. We should have been way ahead with that already and trying to point at a product being sold rather than a product being in the shadows of another product.”

Head of Pan Trinbago’s Tobago region Salisha James said she had similar views but noted a meeting was carded with the Tobago Festivals Commission for Wednesday to discuss Carnival 2021 and she preferred to wait until after that meeting to comment.

Earlier this year, Chairman of the National Carnival Commission Winston Gypsy Peters had put the suggestion of a separate Tobago Carnival back on the agenda, a plug he has been making since being the culture minister in the People’s Partnership government. Peters had held talks on the matter with then-chief secretary Kelvin Charles.

When contacted, Chairman of the Festivals Commission Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-Angus said she was in a meeting. Attempts to contact THA Chief Secretary and Secretary of Tourism, Culture and Transportation Ancil Dennis proved futile as calls to his mobile went unanswered and messages remained unread.