The stage gone...online?

THREE major Carnival-related music events have now confirmed they will be held virtually in 2021.

The Road March, the International Soca Monarch and the Chutney Soca Monarch will proceed in new guises. To riff on last year’s Road March winner, the stage has not gone bad, it’s gone online.

Other entities, such as the TT Film Festival, are also announcing plans to join in to produce a radically different but recognisable virtual version of the Carnival celebrations.

It’s a good development. At the moment, we might not be able to fully replicate the experience of real life. But with so much technology already taking us halfway there, there is no reason why available mechanisms cannot be used to help fill the gap.

While there have been a few teething problems recently with regard to the recording of “fetes” in controlled spaces like Queen’s Hall, it remains the case that virtual tools have long been part and parcel of the Carnival experience.

All the major Carnival events have been streamed online in the past. Some have even encouraged virtual participation through “people’s choice” awards. We are not reinventing the wheel.

Even so, the changes being wrought by diverse entities like the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation, Southex and the Caribbean Prestige Foundation are miles away from the position taken, and maintained, by the National Carnival Commission (NCC).

“There is no Carnival 2021 so the NCC won’t recognise any winner for any event,” said NCC chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters on Saturday. If Mr Peters and similar officials are not careful, they may soon find it is bodies like the NCC that are left in the dust.

The failure to allocate funds to the NCC is one thing, the lack of dialogue with stakeholders on the part of the State another. Carnival has been cancelled, but in terms of its governance, ole mas has not.

Worse, reform in the wake of the pandemic is not on the agenda of the body charged with responsibility for the festival. We are afforded little insight into what reviews have been done or what recommendations made, if any. What if, in light of new possibly vaccine-resistant strains of the novel coronavirus evolving, it is still impossible to revert to business as usual for Carnival 2022?

Not only have some private Carnival event organisers been forward-thinking, they have taken active steps to increase interactive participation in their events, partnering, ironically, with a state telecommunications company to allow text voting in one instance.

It is equally the case that while virtual participation is subject to abuse, it nonetheless removes the stranglehold of traditional gatekeepers.

So, to borrow from another Road March winner, if every road is a stage, so too is every screen. Long may the Merry Monarch reign.