Vendors: We got no money, no love for Carnival

Port of Spain Carnival vendors lamented the poor treatment they received over the Carnival season and wore worried looks as they talked about the low turnout and poor profit.

Five vendors of the National Carnival Commission Carnival (NCC) booths at the Queen’s Park Savannah (QPS) spoke to Newsday on Tuesday.

The only one willing to be named, as Allison, asked in a tired voice, “This is the Mother of all Carnivals?”

She said on both Carnival Monday and Tuesday, she saw almost no one from the mas bands and she wondered if they had been directed out of town.

“When I saw the map, the amount of jump people have to jump to make all of the judging points, by the time they got here, it had few people.”

Allison said she’s been at the Savannah for around 19 years and this is the first time she’s seen Port of Spain look dead for Carnival.

Asked what she had expected, she said, “More tourists, as we’re accustomed seeing, because mostly tourists appreciate the craft and they like to get souvenir items as well.”

She said not even a dime was made during this Carnival season.

At another booth, both women, who preferred to remain anonymous, said they were both unsatisfied by this year’s Carnival or lack thereof.

While crocheting a bikini top, on woman said, “In comparison to the last Carnival we had before the lockdown, (that one) was all right for me. It wasn’t the best, but it was passable, but now, this rounds? I don’t know what happened.”

She said she anticipated she would earn around $40,000, but unfortunately, had made nothing.

“There are people who probably made what they expected, but I didn’t. I did a lot of work and it just didn’t work out for me.”

She said she was hoping at least to recoup the $5,000 she spent on materials, some of which had to be imported. She added that some of that money also went into sprucing up the booth to attract customers.

Two other vendors at their booth did not give their names, describing their business as their bread and butter.

One vendor echoed same sentiments as Allison, though, saying, “It was terrible. They said this was the Mother of all Carnivals? But it was a stepmother.”

The other said they received awful treatment, as they got the booths late, the bathrooms were inaccessible and some were left feeling unsafe in their own booths.

There was one makeshift tent behind their booth, separated into three sections, she said: that was a bathroom for the vendors, but they only saw it on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. She said it had been removed by the time they got back the next day.

She called on the NCC to treat the vendors better going forward.

The NCC could not be reached for comment.