Carnival Tempo coming in San Fernando

ONE southern steelband plans to maximise the time slot usually reserved on the Carnival calendar for the Calypso Fiesta show to stage an event targeting local and international audiences.

CAL Skiffle Steel Orchestra will create an alternative event to help ease the Carnival tabanca and reconnect nationals and the diaspora with their favourite artistes via a virtual space.

Calypso Fiesta, the annual calypso picnic where thousands would have gathered to hear and critique the cream of the calypso crop, from among whom finalists would have been chosen for the Calypso Monarch, was scheduled for February 6 at Skinner Park, San Fernando.

As an alternative, Skiffle is promising to bring the Tempo in Sando with an amazing display of TT's culture. San Fernando mayor Junia Regrello, who is also the CEO of Skiffle, said with Carnival cancelled, he was hoping the critical thinkers would have come up with some virtual ideas while at the same time satisfying the millions of people who crave such pleasure.

He explained that as a state agency, anything organised by the San Fernando City Corporation (SFCC) or the San Fernando Carnival Committee would require a subvention from the National Carnival Committee (NCC).

NCC chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters has made it clear that no Carnival means no subvention, but entrepreneurs are free to use their imagination to create events in keeping with covid19 protocols.

With limited resources, Regrello said of the SFCC, “We are stymied by that.”

As an entity, Skiffle decided, in the absence of the fiesta, to have a gathering of people from across the world take up a front-row seat from the comfort of their own spaces, watch their favourite artistes and enjoy a little of what they have been missing for the past few months.

“We had to do something because there is so much energy. We all have a Carnival tabanca. Skiffle’s panyard is full of players every night because this is what they would normally be doing around this time.”

After some planning, the result is a February 6 concert at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA), starting at 7 pm, which will be streamed live by Wack90.1FM to TT, New York, Miami, London, Toronto and across Europe.

The concert will feature a cultural spectrum and also includes soca exponents Ding Dong, College Boy Jesse, Nadia Batson, Elon Baker, Voice, Christo, new artiste Savanna, calypsonians Cro Cro, Ras Kommanda, Brian London and Farmer Nappy.

San Fernando talent will also be represented by a choir from St Joseph’s Convent, Skiffle, and its junior pan group and recent recipient of an honorary doctorate from UWI pannist Len “Boogsie” Sharpe. MC is comedian Rachel Price.

Because of the physical distancing protocols Regrello said SAPA can only entertain a live audience of 250 people.

In terms of other Carnival activities in San Fernando, Regrello said he had been hopeful other stakeholders would have come together to innovate.

“Carnival is Carnival. That is our nature. I would have liked to see the south/central arm of TUCO and the NCBA engage in some kind of innovation, because there is a window for it.

“No one has spoken to me about any initiatives,” he said.

Next Wednesday, the corporation pays tribute to the late steelband arranger Steve Achaiba, who has been credited with teaching the late Ken “Professor” Philmore to play the tenor pan and giving him the title “Professor.”

A street leading from Independence Avenue to the panyard of Hatters, one of the bands he arranged for, will be named after Achaiba, who died on July 19, 2018.

In other Carnival-related activitie,s Regrello said, without a 2021 Carnival subvention, the kings and queens who are owed prize money will have to wait a little longer to collect.

He said the SFCC, which has accumulated a debt over the years, has settled around 90 per cent of it and the only outstanding debt is to the characters who portrayed kings and queens. He said those prizes are a bit hefty per individual and considering there are approximately eight kings and eight queens, it adds up to a tidy sum. He committed to pay, but asked the winners to hold some strain.