Cherisse Moe

Tri­nis love to par­ty! And at Car­ni­val time, they will par­ty, what­ev­er the cost. With a three month-long C2K11 sea­son-Car­ni­val lovers are hit­ting fete af­ter fete af­ter fete-and are dig­ging deep in­to their pock­ets to do so. With some of the more pop­u­lar events cost­ing in ex­cess of $700, pa­trons are cer­tain­ly pulling out the dough. Scalpers too are go­ing all out this year, charg­ing out­ra­geous prices for fete tick­ets to any­one will­ing to buy. Des­per­ate to get in­side Tribe's an­nu­al One Fete staged at the Queen's Park Oval on Jan­u­ary 30, one pa­tron said he forked out $1,200 for a tick­et, orig­i­nal­ly priced at $800.

An­oth­er fete-lover said he "didn't mind" pay­ing a scalper $750 to at­tend Yorke Fete, held at UWI grounds on Feb­ru­ary 12. The orig­i­nal cost of the tick­et was $550. Think that's out­ra­geous? Sta­cy, 26, a self pro­claimed "Car­ni­val ba­by" re­sort­ed to tak­ing out a bank loan just to en­joy her favourite fetes. "Go­ing to the hottest par­ties for the sea­son is a must! And I al­so need­ed to get my cos­tume, so I bor­rowed some mon­ey. It will be a strug­gle to pay it back be­cause things re­al tough right now. But, I know I'll have fun on the road, so it will all be worth it," she rea­soned. Ja­son, 33, con­curred. "So far I've been to five all-in­clu­sives. My pock­et bawl­ing, but I have to go about two more be­fore the sea­son done!"

Val­ue for mon­ey

Or­gan­is­ers of some of the sea­son's "high end' fetes say al­though prices are steep, pa­trons are guar­an­teed a good time. Some, like Es­cape To Playa Del Este Sanc­tu­ary All In­clu­sive- com­mon­ly known as Saly­bia Fete-of­fer spa treat­ments and the best eats and drinks. The price tag? $700.

Danc­ing in the Sanc­tu­ary Fete, to be staged on March 6, gives pa­trons sim­i­lar perks and al­so costs $700. Ac­cord­ing to pro­mot­er Michael Headley, "In spite of the in­fla­tion of food and drinks, I've kept the price con­sis­tent for the past fours years and peo­ple still get the same ser­vice." The for­mer band leader of the de­funct Car­ni­val band, Poi­son, said pa­trons could al­so en­joy pre­mi­um drinks and food sta­tions, as well as a maxi ser­vice for those who "do not want to face the breathal­yser" on their way home.

Pre­mi­um fetes

Mean­while, some fete or­gan­is­ers have ad­mit­ted that this year, tick­et prices have in­creased. Dr David Pi­cou, chair­man of the or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee for the an­nu­al Friends To The Max Car­ni­val Fete said tick­ets, which last year cost $850, were now be­ing sold for $900. De­spite the $50 hike, Dr Pi­cou not­ed that sales were "go­ing well." For­mer­ly called Max Richards and Friends Fete, the Feb­ru­ary 27 event of­fers pa­trons a wide va­ri­ety of pre­mi­um eats and drinks, like wild meat, smoked salmon, caviar and cham­pagne. "Food prices went up, cater­ers have al­so shot up their prices. The prices of ser­vices, mu­sic, and every­thing else have gone up. We try to keep prices as low as pos­si­ble but we had to make an in­crease." Pi­cou as­sured, how­ev­er, that pa­trons would get their mon­ey's worth, as the event was one of the "pre­mi­um fetes" on the Car­ni­val cal­en­dar. "Our aim is to main­tain the qual­i­ty of the fete...Part of the pro­ceeds will go to char­i­ty," he said.

Ul­tra all-in­clu­sive

This year has al­so seen the in­tro­duc­tion of the 'ul­tra all-in­clu­sive.' Dubbed Lime, this event is a new­com­er to the lo­cal fete are­na and costs $1,000. Put on by the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel and Pollen Na­tion Events, it is said to be worth every pen­ny. At a re­cent news con­fer­ence held at the ho­tel, event co-or­di­na­tor Collin Abra­ham, said the fete, which fea­tures David Rud­der and Char­lie's Roots, Kes The Band, Ravi B and his band Kar­ma, could see pa­trons walk­ing out the fete with lux­u­ry items, "just to show we care."