Is there to be a Carnival?

ALFRED AGUITON

MY FELLOW carnivalistas:

May I first apologise for inflicting these thoughts on your good selves, and explain that I sent them to the dailies not in order to gain wider notoriety but in acknowledgment that two out of three may very, understandably, have far better use for their space. My gratitude for any granted exposure.

My respectful subject matter is Carnival.

I am reluctantly opting for leaving my comfortable retiree’s seat in the pavilion to venture back onto the field – or more metaphorically appropriate – to leave the resignee’s chair at the Grand Stand to draw closer to stageside, just to make a few comments on the matter of our passion festival.

You may wonder: what uninvited breeze could have stirred a spirit that has been prudently at rest some 26 years now?

Simply, I’ve recently become aware of comments publicly disseminated which indicate, inter alia, that “now may be too early a time to think about the next Carnival.”

I admit that our current times are being sufficiently affected/infected by covid19 distractions. Moreover, I confess that I know absolutely nothing of the prevailing works or wishes of the national Carnival commandantes. I’m sure they’re all hard at their jobs. Gypsy and Colin, I believe, are hardwuk leaders.

But as I sat on the front porch of life, in the rocking chair reserved for ex-chairpersons of Carnival, enjoying the bands of new generations going by, I found it irresistible to have made the following napkin-jottings:

Traditionally there had been at least three major obstacles blocking the highway of Carnival’s progress, viz:

1. Not enough permanently employed troops, thus over-dependence on the “may or may not turn up” volunteers.

2. The unpredictability of funding and, worse, the constant exhausting of this year’s money to pay for last debts.

3. The breathless preparation for each current Carnival, leaving little time to recover from mistakes and to apply the lessons learned from the last Carnivals, or to wind-tunnel any bold and beautiful new ideas outside the box of deadlines.

Today however, it seems there may be time. Indeed, rather than “too early” we may already be edging closer to being “too late” given the opportunities that exist in 2021.

Here are some questions we can all ask if there’s no Carnival in ’22 and worse ’23:

* Do we not have time to establish a Carnival corporation, of private sector structure with shareholders toute monde, and with TT manufacturing assembly lines replacing import dependency with export opportunity?

* Time to invite/commission architects to design a more imaginative, functional, enviro-sensitive Carnival centre with public/private sectors’ funds (the AnsaMcCarnival Centre?), with regional satellite facilities to match, all built up without disrupting an actual Carnival?

* Time to plan and secure “community” as well as “masquerader” buy-in regarding band routes, band control technology, and designs for call-of-nature conveniences other than residents’ walls and, as well, for colourful street/route-markings.

* Time for conceptualising and actualising more professionally produced shows – Dimanche Gras, kings/queens competitions, with collaboration between TT showmeisters and celebrated international show-makers (eg Peter Minshall/Davlin Thomas with Jeffrey Seller of Broadway’s Hamilton fame, thus, big names selling even more tickets to overseas patrons).

*Time for bandleaders to tune their crafts more finely; for calypsonians and pannists to craft their tunes more meaningfully, as there will not be the commercial deadlines that eviscerate our works of art; choreographers mapping dance moves with richer indigenous genius while having world-class appeal.

* Time for marketing wizards to concoct more attractive buyer and seller packages; business investors to design more progressive, mutually profitable deals.

* Time for NCC management to write much-needed training and operational manuals for staff (ushers, guards, vendors, et al), and for tertiary institutions (UWI/UTT/COSTATT/ALJSOB, et al) and even secondary schools, to engage in research and academic-grounded science-art propositions

* Time to chart the organisational fundamentals of a three-future-Carnivals-at-a-time plan, so as to be well ahead of the curve.

All this and more can be done without jeopardising the spontaneity of the Carnival spirit, without dulling the chaos that triggers adrenaline, shooting steroids into our work-and-play neurosystem, without robbing us of the perennial bacchanal that seems to sharpen and sweeten our performance juices.

We may not have done this kind of focus on Carnival during the Spanish flu or World War II (perhaps missing were, eg, Ackin, Affong, Bailey, Berkeley, Boogsie, Gabriel, Glasgow, Harts, Jaycees, Kalicharan, Kitchener, Lee Heung, Strasser, Machel, MacIntosh, McWilliams, Morris, Munroe, Ramsey-Moore, Riki Jai, Rudder, Serrette, Singh, Sparrow, 3canal, Victor, NCC’s Prince/DeSilva/Matthew/Moe, and the countless other ingredients of Carnival past and present, all bubbling in the pots of today and tomorrow’s burners) – but we may never again get an opportunity like this to revolutionise the festival.

Arise ye spirits of Carnival...or allow me to go back to rocking and dozing on my front porch, undisturbed by beads, bikinis, and blasé musical fare.