Yvonne Webb

With Car­ni­val just a week away, mon­ey wor­ries con­tin­ue to plague the San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee.San Fer­nan­do May­or Kaz­im Ho­sein said he has writ­ten more than 100 let­ters to po­ten­tial spon­sors ap­peal­ing to them to help res­cue the mas in the south­ern city but the re­sponse is very slow."Car­ni­val is just a few days away. We would like to see the growth of Car­ni­val. We want to woo mas­quer­aders who are go­ing to Port-of-Spain to play mas. We want them to come back, but we have mon­ey prob­lems," he said

Speak­ing dur­ing a vis­it to pa­n­yards and mas camps over the week­end, Ho­sein said when he came in­to of­fice last No­vem­ber he heard sev­er­al com­plaints from peo­ple in the mas fra­ter­ni­ty who were owed prize mon­ey for 2013. Half of the gov­ern­ment sub­ven­tion re­ceived was used to clear off the debt, leav­ing the com­mit­tee with just $650,000 to stage Car­ni­val, Ho­sein said.

"Gov­ern­ment has cut our sub­ven­tion in half. All we have is $650,000 for Car­ni­val which is next to noth­ing. Band­lead­ers are com­plain­ing, we need more cor­po­rate spon­sors to get in­volved, not just in Car­ni­val, but in sports and cul­ture on the whole."Ho­sein as­sured, how­ev­er, that cul­ture is alive in San Fer­nan­do.

"The band­lead­ers are ea­ger­ly fin­ish­ing off their cos­tumes. Most of the bands have sold out, and those who do not have a cos­tume, we en­cour­age you to come and par­tic­i­pate, be­cause Car­ni­val 2014 is go­ing to be a bumper one in San Fer­nan­do," he sai­dAt the Kalicha­ran mas camp, Wendy Kalicha­ran said she has been lucky to have com­pa­nies like bmo­bile, Lenny Sumadh, Oil­field and Marines, Checks Mo­tor Sup­plies and BP Ma­haraj on board as spon­sors.

"We have been for­tu­nate and we are grate­ful, but Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do needs more spon­sor­ship. It is one of the rea­sons why Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do is not grow­ing."She called on the Gov­ern­ment to sub­sidise the mas.Kalicha­ran, whose mas pre­sen­ta­tion for Car­ni­val 2014 is Beats, said the San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val com­mit­tee should not be so cash-strapped.

"If you have a com­pe­ti­tion and the mon­ey is due, you owe band­lead­ers and gov­ern­ment al­lo­cate the funds, the funds should be chan­neled in­to the arts and com­pe­ti­tions," she said.