OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has as­sured that Car­ni­val “will con­tin­ue to be one of the great­est shows on earth” and stressed that the move to end fetes at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my was “nev­er a back­room de­ci­sion,” but part of a noise-con­trol man­date that “the peo­ple over­whelm­ing­ly vot­ed for.”

In a post on X yes­ter­day, she said the Gov­ern­ment’s ac­tions fol­lowed months of pub­lic dis­cus­sions and thou­sands of cit­i­zens shar­ing their sto­ries, frus­tra­tions, and hopes.

The Prime Min­is­ter said she spoke about the crack­down on noise pol­lu­tion re­peat­ed­ly on pub­lic plat­forms and came af­ter thou­sands of cit­i­zens shared their sto­ries, frus­tra­tions, and hopes, “and it is their voic­es that shaped this Gov­ern­ment’s pol­i­cy.”

“We are keep­ing our promise to re­store the con­sti­tu­tion­al right of every cit­i­zen to en­joy their prop­er­ty and their peace. Our full leg­isla­tive agen­da will be pre­sent­ed soon.”

She added, “Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val will con­tin­ue to be one of the great­est shows on earth, but bal­ance is es­sen­tial. I am con­fi­dent that pro­mot­ers will make use of al­ter­na­tive venues and that their pock­ets will not be af­fect­ed. We promised peace, and we in­tend to de­liv­er it.”

Her com­ments came af­ter days of heat­ed de­bate trig­gered by her di­rec­tive to im­me­di­ate­ly ban fetes at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my, a venue tra­di­tion­al­ly used for ma­jor Car­ni­val events.

The Pro­mot­ers As­so­ci­a­tion said the move sig­nalled the death of Car­ni­val and claimed that oth­er Ude­cott-run fa­cil­i­ties were al­so be­ing blocked. How­ev­er, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath said on­ly one venue was af­fect­ed, adding that con­sul­ta­tions would take place and Car­ni­val re­mained safe.

Amid the ten­sion, en­ter­tain­ment mogul and long-time pro­mot­er Randy Glas­gow is urg­ing the in­dus­try not to pan­ic. He said the Prime Min­is­ter’s stance is an op­por­tu­ni­ty for pro­mot­ers to re­fine their pro­pos­als rather than a re­jec­tion of Car­ni­val events.

“While oth­ers may be mad with the Prime Min­is­ter, I kind of un­der­stand the po­si­tion,” he said at his New­town of­fice yes­ter­day. “When some­body tells you no, they re­al­ly don’t mean no. They mean go back to the draw­ing board, make sure you do this and that, and then come back. That’s how I in­ter­pret the Prime Min­is­ter.”

Glas­gow said the sec­tor still has “one hun­dred days” to sort out ad­just­ments, adding that most ma­jor events al­ready have plan­ning well un­der­way.

“Car­ni­val is a Trinidad prod­uct. We’re work­ing for our coun­try. The ben­e­fits are enor­mous—tourism, for­eign ex­change, em­ploy­ment—so it’s worth the ef­fort to make things right.”

Look­ing ahead to 2026, he re­peat­ed his call for the North Stand at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah to be dis­con­tin­ued and trans­formed in­to a “Car­ni­val cap­i­tal” ca­pa­ble of host­ing events for up to 25,000 peo­ple. He said aban­don­ing the North Stand would save mil­lions, some of which could be redi­rect­ed to Pan Trin­ba­go.

“Pan Trin­ba­go would be in a very lu­cra­tive po­si­tion with ex­tra gov­ern­ment sav­ings and in­creased gate rev­enues. And as the Mec­ca of pan, the first prize should be more than $1 mil­lion. In fact, it should be $2 mil­lion.”

He said the fi­nan­cial de­mands on a large steel or­ches­tra—from tun­ing and pay­ing up to 120 play­ers to trans­porta­tion, se­cu­ri­ty, and fa­cil­i­ties—re­quired stronger sup­port.

The pro­mot­er al­so crit­i­cised past arrange­ments in which ma­jor earn­ings by­passed artistes and cre­atives. “When you see an artiste get sick, they have to do a Go­FundMe. It shouldn’t be like that. Mon­ey must go to the artistes and cre­atives, not con­trac­tors.”

De­spite the back-and-forth, Glas­gow re­mains op­ti­mistic: “Things al­ways work out for Car­ni­val.”