Carnival 2021 in wait-and-see mode

In any other year, band launches would have happened by now. People would be choosing which bands to play in and what costumes to wear, come Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

But for 2021 the question of whether there will even be a Carnival is still up in the air as the global covid19 pandemic rages.

In April, National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Winston "Gypsy" Peters said a decision would be made in the next 90 days. In June, former minister of community development, culture and the arts Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said there were no plans to cancel Carnival 2021 and no final decision had been made.

New Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell expects to meet with Carnival stakeholders within the coming days.

He added that since the world was in the midst of a pandemic, Carnival would be conditional on whether a vaccine is found and how quickly.

Mitchell said Carnival itself was a tremendous economic product from TT.

“So I have to speak with the NCC and other stakeholders and determine what is the status of Carnival and determine what type of Carnival, if we can have it at all.”

Some Carnival practitioners like Ronnie McIntosh, co-founder of large band Ronnie and Caro, remain in wait-and-see mode.

He said the designs won’t go to waste even if there isn't a Carnival 2021.

“We would just deal with the situation accordingly whenever an announcement is made.”

Lost Tribe’s creative director Valmiki Maharaj said his band is doing the same.

“We have to wait and comply with the Government and their perspective on what the safety situation is. Because our perspective, from the start, has always been safety first.”

Maharaj said while TT’s Carnival is "asleep," the Lost Tribe has been looking at its procedures, methods, systems and scenarios for when the Government makes a decision. He said the scenarios that were envisaged three months ago have gone through many iterations since then and continue to change.

“If I am so bold to say, there are many more things that we still – the whole Carnival industry – really need to look at as to what Carnival is going to look like in 2021 and 2022. Maybe more than what it looks like than how it operates.”

While safety is the band’s priority, if there weren’t a Carnival 2021, that would admittedly make things difficult.

“There are so many people we hire and employ to make costumes and do a variety of different things, and all of our stakeholders are going to be in a really bad position if there is no Carnival 2021.

“The creative industry is crying. It is haemorrhaging.”

But Maharaj sees Carnival as more than “jumping and drinking on the road around a music truck” and so sees different ways in which a Carnival 2021 could be carried out. The Lost Tribe has been considering social media campaigns and virtual activities that engage different aspects of the culture, communities and families.

Maharaj said it is going to be hard for the Carnival industry to move on from covid19, unlike some others, because the entertainment industry was shut down totally.

Many young creative people were operating on their savings and other such resources. So when the industry restarts "in however (many) weeks or months or however long it takes to start back up," those resources would not be available for marketing, production or anything else.

He hoped the Government would be able to do something to help stimulate the industry when it is time to restart. Maharaj said the industry knows resources are slim and is not expecting a miracle or golden ticket, but hoped all stakeholders can work together.

He said he looks forward to being a part of the conversation now that a new minister has been sworn in.

For Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation (TUCO) president Lutalo “Brother Resistance” Masimba, too, safety is the utmost priority.

To work around covid19, the organisation has placed the question of virtual programming on the table.

“We want to work towards that in the shortest possible time.”

Masimba added that everything was in place to do virtual programming and TUCO could not wait until the moment came.

“Whether there is the Carnival as we know it or not, we are preparing virtual programming to ensure that calypso music is out there.”

He said the organisation also believes consideration should be given to postponing Carnival, as was done in 1972 because of the threat of the polio virus. Masimba plans to discuss delaying Carnival 2021 with the NCC if there is no change in TT’s covid19 situation.

Peters – who lost the PNM's bid to retain Moruga/Tableland in the August 10 general election – could not speak about Carnival when Newsday contacted him on Thursday. He said the commission had to get new directives from Mitchell. Peters hopes to meet with him as soon as Monday.

By this time last year, Kalicharan Carnival would have already done its photo shoots and would have been getting ready for its band launch. Covid19 has changed all of that.

Aaron Kalicharan, one of the bandleaders,said the organisation was keeping abreast of the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines and news on covid19.

Kalicharan said the organisation was not entertaining any potential events or gatherings owing to the risk associated with the pandemic.

If there was no Carnival 2021, he said, the organisation would look at how it could assist people, fellow stakeholders, family, friends and masqueraders.

The band has not mass-produced any costumes this year.

Kalicharan said while the band has always had a mainly local base its costumes over the last ten years were locally designed but produced by foreign suppliers.

“That will have to change now. We will not take the risk.”