The Taste test begins

After all the fretting and fuss about the shape and scope of the NCC's planned Taste of Carnival (ToC) events, the main course begins this weekend with yesterday's single pan and small steelband events and today's traditional mas parade.

Already, competitions promised in the first version of the ToC schedule have collapsed in the face of reduced funding.

Today's Calypso Fiesta will be a non-competitive concert showdown of performers, after TUCO's president Ainsley King shut down both the National Calypso and Extempo Monarch competitions.

For Dimanche Gras, which was supposed to be the finals of the competition, the organisation plans a calypso super-clash.

In the heat of these changes, a contretemps between NCC chairman Winston "Gypsy" Peters and Mr King arose over who had the final say over the staging of the monarch competition.

According to Mr King, a budget of $1.5 million for even a taste of calypso was unworkable after $1.3 million was already spent to stage a series of tent events that began on February 10 at the Queen's Hall Garden Theatre.

Funding for the ToC event was reduced from $25 million announced by Mr Peters to $15 million with an additional $5 million allocated for approved small safe-zone events.

The TT Carnival Bands Association has determined to press ahead despite the withdrawal of some creators. The TTCBA expects 30 kings and queens to compete along with 80 individuals.

Pan Trinbago got the largest allocation of $4 million and will produce shows expected to attract the participation of roughly half of the bands it represents, with 83 registered to participate.

The Government has remained firm on its financial commitment, urging Carnival organisers and stakeholders to stay within their budgets.

This version of Carnival is still to be proved in a taste test, with early audiences for calypso tents falling below expectations for a commercial event, peaking with Thursday night's Back to Basics show, which collapsed two nights of attendees into one after Wednesday's blackout.

With a budget far below the normal allocation and dramatic limits on audience participation, much of the ToC event calendar seems like an attempt to shoehorn a traditional Carnival into limited circumstances.

On Thursday, JTUM president Ancel Roget suggested that the Government should forget the whole thing and just give the money to Carnival creatives.

There was certainly no need for competitions when collaboration might have offered a fresh take on the festival, using the mini-festival to win online audiences, engaging necessarily small audiences, and to stoke interest in a potential return to a refreshed festival in 2023.

ToC offered an opportunity to cultivate a taste for something different and it remains to be seen if the same thing, served kiddie-size, will satisfy the national appetite for Carnival.