Sponsorship continues to be an issue for the Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society’s (TTRCS) Children’s Carnival. But, TTRCS president Jill De Bourg is confident sponsors would pull through, despite the slow start.
Speaking at its launch, National Carnival Commission chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters also urged sponsors to get behind the Children’s Carnival.
“I want to urge sponsors and those who have sponsored in the past, and those who were asked to sponsor now to give generously. To give to our carnival.”
This he said, was because he believes the children’s carnival to be the real display of creativity when juxtaposed with the adult displays.
“I think where the children’s carnival portray the creativity and incites the imagination, the adult carnival leaves nothing to the imagination and is totally devoid of any creativity,” he said.
Just weeks before last year’s iteration of the show, De Bourg admitted 90 per cent of the budget needed to pull off the show had not been raised. However, she said this year they reduced the budget for the show by half; from $700,000 to $350,000.
“We decided to cut that budget in half. Not because we were scared or anything like that but because it made sense,” she said.
De Bourg explained they were able to do this because they did not have to incur many of the costs which they needed to last year to rebrand their product.
However, she assured that even though the budget was reduced, the quality of the show would be even better than last year’s.
In 2019, the show was saved by two last-minute state sponsors—Caribbean Airlines Limited and the National Lotteries Control Board.
De Bourg said planning for this year’s show began in August 2019 and sponsors were approached from as early as September. However, she said, they were told to “get back to them in the new year.”
This, she explained, meant the society had its work cut out for them in terms of returning to sponsors with such a short time remaining for the show.
She indicated they “need to do some analysis in terms of why sponsorship to our cultural events are so slow and so slow coming out of the gate;” more so their specific brand.
However, she remained optimistic about their end-goal.
“We have to be persistent. We have to show the value of our product.”
