Arnold: No major Carnival events in Tobago until March

Tobago Festivals Commission CEO John Arnold said the island will not host any full-scale Carnival events over the weekend and on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

“In terms of what we have planned, our events will not coincide with the normal Carnival events this weekend,” he told Newsday on Wednesday.

“But we will be having Carnival presentations later on in March or early April.”

Arnold said all major events were postponed mainly because the commission did not executive approval from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) “in a timely fashion.”

He said: “(THA) Elections ended up in a situation where there was a hiatus of the meeting of the Executive Council to approve.

“So, the note did go up and we are hoping that approval will come through next week in the usual two-week fashion.”

Arnold said $2 million has already been approved to cover five areas – calypso, pan, mas, new Tobago Soca and mud mass documentary.

He said once the approval is granted, the commission will then engage suppliers “to get this going.”

He said all of the island’s Carnival stakeholders have been consulted.

Arnold said Pan Trinbago will be hosting a show titled, Tobago Steel Pan-demic 2021 while TUCO-Tobago is still working on its production, Under the Coconut Tree, which traces the evolution of calypso.

He added the masmen are also enthusiastic about their production.

In the meantime, Arnold said the commission is running several competitive events, including a calypso competition on covid19 and an essay competition for children about the pandemic.

There will also be a throwback video highlighting mas on the island over the past few years.

“So, in terms of Carnival, the time we would have normally had Carnival, the TFC is not having anything this weekend.

“But we can assure the public there will be a Tobago Carnival presentation.”

Arnold said Carnival can fit into any period of the year.