Sekon Sta's Festival Friday: Rebuilding the culture

Sekon Sta Management owner Nesta “Sekon Sta” Boxill and founder of Winerboy Entertainment Arvinder Rampersad want to rebuild the local entertainment sector and it wants to do this through its Festival Friday.

The cooler event is being held this on February 25 at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. The duo will host, promote and produce the “fun cooler event,” a media release said.

Sekon Sta is, “determined to spread the soca message of unity, freedom and enjoyment in spite of the ongoing covid19 pandemic and all of the protocols in place,” it added

He acknowledged the need for caution in reopening the entertainment sector and embraced the measures and facilities allowed by the Government to present a Taste of Carnival 2022.

"We have been dormant for the past two years but now, we're seeing a gradual return to normality happening and so, I think we must embrace it and follow the guidelines so we can return to practising and showcasing our culture, while also reducing the spread of the virus and safeguarding the healthy status of our loved ones, friends and fellow citizens here in Trinidad and Tobago," he said in the release from Overtime Media.

Rampersad said the mission at hand now is to rebuild the industry from the ground up, while also "preserving the amazing legacy of our forefathers and innovating to anticipate, meet and surpass the future needs, wants and possibilities of the Carnival faithful.

"The reality is that many of the brands and organisations that built the model for Carnival which we have used throughout the 2000s have not survived the pandemic," he said.

"Those that still exist have to innovate and experiment with new ideas, venues and new channels for marketing and promotion until we strike a balance between what promoters can produce and what the people/patrons want to experience. Also what they can afford and are willing to spend their hard-earned monies on going forward. That's a delicate balance that can only be arrived at through trial and experimentation."

That why’s the duo decided to have a cooler event instead.

They said while the old Carnival event model would dictate that operating a bar would generate substantial additional income, the present mandates and circumstances dictate that allowing patrons to bring their own drinks in their own coolers is more desirable to the public and would encourage less crowding in the aisles and around a bar.

“Thus, the Festival Friday event will allow patrons entry with their coolers and non-glass bottles until 10 pm on the night,” the release said.

For Rampersad and Sekon Sta it is also not about making money. Rampersad said, “This is not about making money it's about celebrating our survival, honouring those who have passed on and branding and establishing a presence in the festival that we will take forward into the new entertainment spaces, once the industry is officially reopened…"

The release said Sekon Sta is known for producing the first-ever "fetecert" in 2019 and is “no stranger to innovation within the industry and looks forward to operating within the Savannah safe-zone facility, where the much-talked-about patron pods will take centre stage just as much as he and his colleagues in soca will on the night.

"After hosting my own event for a few years and experiencing the crush of bodies at Crew's Inn in Chaguaramas, we moved the event to Fatima Grounds in 2020 and again achieved success, while bringing so many people together from different walks of life.

“Clearly, this is a different time and we will be coming together, while simultaneously staying a safe distance apart and the pods will allow us to maintain that safe space while also being close enough to see and hear and enjoy the event with our pod neighbours... So this is not Sekon Sunday or even a Sekon Sta and friends concert, but we're going to put together a fun night and an entertaining cast to celebrate our culture and our annual festival in a safe and responsible way,” he said.

Sekon Sta will perform alongside artistes like Erphaan Alves, Preedy, Nailah Blackman, Melick, Mical Teja, Ravi B and more.

The release said all covid19 protocols will be observed and only vaccinated patrons will be allowed to enter the venue.