On its website the National Carnival Commission (NCC) presents a vision “to be the global leader of Carnival, with consistent growth, satisfying all stakeholders with quality products and services that exceed all expectations.” Its mission is to “preserve the traditional heritage of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival whilst ensuring its sustainable development as a viable industry.”
Unfortunately, it seems the agency has temporarily abdicated its role of managing the national festival and has gone into hibernation, squandering an opportunity to re-engineer and reimagine Carnival 2021 in the virtual space.
With just a month to go before what would have been Carnival 2021, there is a huge void where usually there would be a flurry of activities—many of them income-generating—in the countdown to Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
It is understood by most that the risk is too high for the festival to proceed in its traditional format but there is also a yearning for the space to be filled with alternative events organised that adhere to public health protocols.
There has been sufficient time since Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s announcement in late September of the cancellation of Carnival 2021 to mobilise the industry’s abundant creative capacity to develop alternative activities. This is where the NCC should have stepped in to bring together stakeholders to conceptualise and produce a series of events.
The possibilities are endless—pay-per-view shows, virtual concerts, socially distanced exhibitions, and workshops. Instead, the NCC has settled for the easy option of mothballing the entire festival.
One Yard, Ansa McAL Foundation’s virtual concert, which was staged Caribbean-wide last October 30, provided a template for what could have been done in place of Carnival with the right amount of planning and collaboration.
But NCC chair Winston ‘Gypsy’ Peters insists there will be no Carnival this year because no funds have been allocated to host virtual events. He admitted in a recent radio interview that he is not keen on a virtual Carnival as he believes only promoters will benefit.
That suggests that the NCC head does not understand the huge and intricate Carnival ecosystem over which he has been given charge. Well beyond the interest groups of calypso, mas, and the steelpan, the industry encompasses a vast number of service providers, professionals, and commercial activities that are now at a complete halt.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put many things beyond the control of industry stakeholders but there is still room for innovation, for the outside-of-the-box thinking and development that will chart a steady course for the festival.
Gregory Aboud of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA), fully aware of the huge economic and social gap created by the absence of Carnival, appealed last week for some activities to be staged. He, like many others, understands the losses this country is facing without the festival.
Those losses could have been mitigated if only, with leadership from the NCC, some attempt was made to harness T&T’s cultural wealth for activities in the virtual space.
Regrettably, that seems to be beyond the vision and mission of the NCC.