Shal­iza?Has­sanali

$1.2 mil­lion.

That's the cost to host tonight's Di­manche Gras show at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah. This fig­ure ex­cludes the $1 mil­lion that will be award­ed to the Ca­lyp­so Monarch.

Con­fir­ma­tion came from chair­man of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) Ken­ny De Sil­va.

NCC is Car­ni­val's gov­ern­ing body. "I am hap­py to re­port that we did not ex­ceed the bud­get for the show," De Sil­va said.

Speak­ing on Thurs­day while ex­am­in­ing fi­nal touch­es to the big stage at the Sa­van­nah, De Sil­va said he hoped T&T would have two days of crime-free and en­joy­able Car­ni­val.

"We are hope­ful and op­ti­mistic that we will have a smooth Car­ni­val. Every­thing is in place for the great­est show on Earth," De Sil­va said.

Of the 4,500 Di­manche Gras tick­ets print­ed, De Sil­va said 50 per cent had al­ready been sold.

"Sales have been go­ing steady and we are ex­pect­ing a sell-out crowd on Sun­day."

Re­served tick­ets are priced at $400 while gen­er­al ad­mis­sion costs $250.

The theme for this year's show is Un­for­get­table–The time line of your life.

On Fri­day, pro­duc­er of the show, Carl Beaver Hen­der­son, gave some in­sight in­to the packed pro­gramme, which be­gins with a pre-show at 6 pm.

The show gets start­ed at 7 pm with steel­band group Pure play­ing an ar­ray of tunes. The 2016 Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch, Sharis­sa Came­jo will open with a ren­di­tion of Our Blessed Land. Hen­der­son said this would be fol­lowed by the 11 Ca­lyp­so Monarch fi­nal­ists and reign­ing champ Rod­er­ick "Chucky" Gor­don each singing their first ca­lyp­so as they vie for the pres­ti­gious ti­tle.

Pa­trons would then be treat­ed to a com­e­dy from Er­rol Fa­bi­en, Learie Joseph, Nik­ki Cros­by, Pen­ne­lope Spencer, George Gon­za­les and Tom­my Joseph.

He said ap­prox­i­mate­ly 60 Car­ni­val char­ac­ters, com­pris­ing go­ril­las, feath­ered In­di­ans, Jab Jabs, moko jumbies, mid­night rob­bers and mas­quer­aders would grace the stage, while the lyrics of Ker­win Du Bois' Un­for­get­table would be played in the back­ground to en­ter­tain the crowd.

"We are al­so ne­go­ti­at­ing with ca­lyp­son­ian Su­per Blue to be a guest per­former. But we are still await­ing word," Hen­der­son said.

Hen­der­son said com­pet­ing ca­lyp­so­ni­ans would then do their sec­ond song

The pro­gramme is ex­pect­ed to come to an end at 11.45 pm.

Hen­der­son said he ex­pect­ed the re­sults to be an­nounced by mid­night.

"We don't want to go be­yond mid­night with the per­for­mances. We in­tend to keep the show as tight as pos­si­ble," he added.