Tobago bandleaders upset, claim parade, J'Ouvert, afro queen show scrapped

CHAIR of the Tobago Carnival Bandleaders Association, Dianne McCrimmon, believes that there is a plan to sabotage the national celebrations in Tobago.

In an interview with Newsday on Tuesday, McCrimmon said, “I am feeling hurt and I am feeling bad about it. It is unfair how they’re treating our national event. Sabotage.

"There is normally a parade of bands, there is no parade of bands. I had to make noise – that cannot be right. They’re only changing up everything. Let’s agree to disagree but we need to come to some kind of mutual understanding. There is no afro queen show; that is something Tobago used to look forward to. Come on, why are you doing us that? They’re saying one thing in meeting and then is something else.”

She said in December there was a meeting with the three interest groups – pan, mas and calypso, where they were introduced to the interim CEO of the Tobago Festivals Commission, Janelle Drysdale-Job, and informed of the commission’s role in the event.

“The festivals commission is railroading everything.

“We were told that the commission is the facilitator of this year's event. When I went another meeting now, they take off parade of bands, they take off J’Ouvert, they take away night mas.

"Roxborough is having J’Ouvert and kiddies carnival on the Sunday – it have nothing else. Scarborough is traditional mas and they want to judge kings and queens. I indicated to them, you can’t judge kings and queens; kings and queens have to come from a band – they say THA not paying it.”

She added: “They saying, 'The secretary say this, the chief secretary say that' – is everybody saying.

"My problem is that people taking jobs and they cannot handle the responsibility of what the job entails. If you are working in the commission and you know you’re a Seven-Days (Adventist), Muslim, pundit – I think you should resign with immediate effect. That job isn’t for you, because you’re giving us more hard work. You’re now pressuring the bands because you is a Seven-Days, your mother never let you play mas. What you know about mas and carnival?”

She said the mas fraternity has no proper information less than a month before the festival's culmination on February 12 and 13.

“Festivals accustomed running the thing, but it was never so. We had (former chairmen) Garnet Peters and Toby James – it was never so. We never go through this. But you see these new people that come in there, they doing what they want.”

Questioned about the responses from the bandleaders that she represent, she said they are not in favour.

“The bands don’t agree with anything that they’ve said – this is national carnival, October is Tobago carnival, but this is the national carnival of TT.

Furthermore, she said she is ready to register bands but is unable to do so as the association doesn’t have a home.

“I was informed that they cannot accommodate us at Shaw Park to do registration. Where do they want me to go and pay a rent? We asked them to give us a spot at the (Scarborough) Esplanade, because I mean – where are we to go?"

She said bandleaders intend to do their registration at the Esplanade whether they get approval or not.

"We’re going on the esplanade and sit down right there and do the registration. I would go on the esplanade and if I get rob, I am going to sue them because this is foolishness.”

She recalled a property given to the association a few years ago by then chief secretary Orville London on Main Street in Scarborough

“When mas make noise, they’re only lying right through. We don’t have nothing. When Kwesi DesVignes was Secretary of Infrastructure, he said they would renovate the place and do some refurbishments. They took our equipment and said they would store it in Shaw Park; to this day, nobody knows where our stuff went. We lost everything. We had a home. Orville London gave us that home.”

She said for the 2023 Carnival, they were given a spot in Shaw Park, but was told that they would have to relocate by Ash Wednesday.

“We don’t have anything to start with. We now start to do a little fundraising – we made $500. I still have that.”

Contacted on Tuesday, Drysdale-Job said the commission has been in regular contact with the carnival stakeholders. She said a calendar of events was released on Monday by the commission.

On its Facebook page on Monday, the commission posted seven events for January, including four church harvests, a wedding consultation and Panorama panyard judging for medium and large bands. The accompanying post by the commission said, "Please note that the events listed are not hosted by the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd."