Are you will­ing to fork out be­tween $5,000 to $15,000 for Car­ni­val fetes and mas, us­ing your sav­ings and bor­row­ing if you have to? This is the av­er­age fig­ure mas lovers are will­ing to spend to en­joy the rev­el­ry this sea­son. In a Sun­day Guardian poll on Face­book, many Car­ni­val lovers said the sea­son can cost them from $5,000 up­wards—with an av­er­age spend of $12,000 to $15,000.

Some peo­ple dip in­to their sav­ings while oth­ers head to cred­it unions and banks for loans in or­der to have a good time for the Car­ni­val sea­son. The Car­ni­val sea­son, which has al­ready start­ed, will cul­mi­nate on March 4 and 5 with the pa­rade of the bands. It means to en­joy the long sea­son of rev­el­ry, mas lovers will have to dig deep­er in­to their pock­ets.

There are 45 new fetes added on for this Car­ni­val sea­son—bring­ing the cur­rent to­tal to 200.

There are 186 events be­fore Car­ni­val and 14 to “cool down” af­ter Car­ni­val. In Jan­u­ary, par­ty an­i­mals have a choice of 32 list­ed events—with eight fetes tak­ing place in the first week­end of the year. Twelve of those are new fetes.

The li­on’s share of the par­ty­ing will be done in Feb­ru­ary with 98 events tak­ing place on the short­est month of the year. On Feb­ru­ary 28 alone, there are 15 events planned.

In March, par­ty­go­ers can look for­ward to 76 fetes, with 14 planned af­ter Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day. On March 1, which is Fan­tas­tic Fri­day, there are 23 list­ed events.

Car­ni­val lovers

Car­ni­val lover Rhi­an Ramkissoon said al­though his fete tick­ets and cos­tumes can amount to more than $20,000, he bud­gets him­self through­out the year and takes ad­van­tage of ear­ly bird spe­cials so he can af­ford it.

“I some­times try to not to re­mem­ber how much it costs,” Ramkissoon said with a laugh when asked about his ex­pens­es.

But af­ter a quick cal­cu­la­tion, he said his fete tick­ets for the sea­son are cost­ing him $14,890.

“That is for tick­ets alone but there are some events where if I get a com­pli­men­ta­ry (tick­et) I will go and if I don’t and I want to at­tend, I’ll buy the tick­et. But that price in­cludes all the ul­tra all-in­clu­sives that I want to at­tend.”

If he does not at­tend the all-in­clu­sives, Ramkissoon will spend $7,760. That does not in­clude the cost of his cos­tume in the band Lost Tribe which is $5,390.

He said in or­der to af­ford his love for Car­ni­val, he starts pay­ing for his cos­tume and all-in­clu­sives months be­fore the sea­son starts.

“For the Car­ni­val cos­tume you are pay­ing your de­posit in Au­gust/Sep­tem­ber, the cost is split so you don’t feel the full im­pact of shelling out $5,000 all at one go and it’s the same thing with the tick­ets, some of the Car­ni­val week fetes go on sale in Oc­to­ber so that gives you an ease.

“So­ka in Mo­ka had an ear­ly bird spe­cial, Bish­ops was the same un­til the end of 2018, so if you are smart, you will take ad­van­tage of these op­por­tu­ni­ties as they are giv­en and if you know this is some­thing you are go­ing to be do­ing every year, you will bud­get your­self ac­cord­ing­ly just like every oth­er cost.”

Ramkissoon is al­so part of a group of 60 peo­ple called Cool­er Guard that at­tends most cool­er fetes.

Self-pro­fessed 58-year-old Car­ni­val Jumbie Ken said get­ting the best val­ue for your mon­ey was all about know­ing which fetes to at­tend.

“I can’t re­mem­ber not be­ing a Car­ni­val Jumbie, I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Ken said.

“I usu­al­ly hit every all-in­clu­sive on the week­ends, there are ten week­ends un­til Car­ni­val and it’s every Sat­ur­day and Sun­day.”

Ken said in the past he has spent $30,000 on fetes alone. That does not in­clude the $10,000 loan he takes for the cos­tumes for him and his wife.

“Now I most­ly use my sav­ings and I cut back dras­ti­cal­ly af­ter Car­ni­val, I know where to cut back and re­strict my­self for the rest of the year to be able to af­ford my Car­ni­val. This tac­tic has been de­vel­oped over years of at­tend­ing fetes and play­ing mas.”

He said he and his wife al­so save mon­ey by pur­chas­ing their fete out­fits abroad when there are sales.

“It makes it a lot cheap­er buy­ing dur­ing sales and when we are trav­el­ling, she will usu­al­ly pick our out­fits and we buy way in ad­vance. It’s a lot eas­i­er than shop­ping for clothes dur­ing the sea­son. It is some­thing we have per­fect­ed over time.”

He said al­though he has spent a lot of mon­ey on Car­ni­val over the years, he would not change any­thing.

“The best mem­o­ries I have are from go­ing to fete—those mem­o­ries keep me go­ing and take me to the next lev­el, I don’t want to miss those op­por­tu­ni­ties at all.”

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This year, he plans to spend be­tween $12,000 to $15,000 for the fetes.

“I am not go­ing to the any of the new fetes, my taste has changed a lot, I have been very se­lec­tive and I most­ly go to events where there is a more ma­ture crowd so I can en­joy my­self.”

Jonell Rox­anne Salazar, an­oth­er Car­ni­val junkie, said she was will­ing to fork out US$100 per fete. Salazar said her Car­ni­val ex­pens­es can run up­wards of $15,000 TT.

“My max bud­get is $100 US for a fete. When I go to ul­tra all-in­clu­sives, they are paid for by cor­po­rate spon­sors. I don’t re­al­ly keep a tal­ly on my Car­ni­val ex­pens­es but it can run any­where from $15,000 and up.”

Salazar said she was not a “back line chick” (band sec­tion) so that cost in­cludes her front-line cos­tume, pro­fes­sion­al make-up, hair, and Mon­day wear.

The Sun­day Guardian al­so reached out to sev­er­al make-up artists who said book­ings for “mas make-up” can cost be­tween $350 to $1,000.

Ali­cia Wal­ters, who owns Sassy Suite, said she be­gins work around 2 am on Car­ni­val Mon­day.

“On Tues­days, it is some­times from mid­night,” Wal­ters said. “I ad­vise peo­ple to take a Car­ni­val make-up class if they have ba­sic skills to learn how to em­bell­ish and ex­tend the longevi­ty of their ap­pli­ca­tion.”

Sabeer­ah Mo­hammed, own­er at Beau­ty by Sabeer­ah said she of­fers dis­counts to clients who want their make-up done on both days.

From all-in­clu­sives to cool­er fetes

For ul­tra all-in­clu­sive fetes such as the Hy­att’s an­nu­al all-in­clu­sive Lime—a “Di­a­mond” tick­et will cost you $3,897. An­oth­er all-in­clu­sive, So­ka in Mo­ka costs $800. The av­er­age price for an all-in­clu­sive event is $1,000.

But if you can’t af­ford those events, there are a range of cool­er fetes, where par­ty­go­ers can bring their own al­co­hol, that cost ap­prox­i­mate­ly $300 for a tick­et.

The Xpe­ri­ence Cool­er Fete on Jan­u­ary 19 at the Bri­an Lara Sta­di­um, which fea­tures so­ca king Machel Mon­tano, cost $394 for a VIP tick­et and $292 for a gen­er­al ad­mis­sion tick­et.

And while par­ty­go­ers can pick and choose which fetes they at­tend, if you love Car­ni­val, play­ing mas is a must and usu­al­ly ac­counts for most of the mon­ey spent dur­ing the sea­son.

Ac­cord­ing to My Car­ni­val Bands, an on­line plat­form that al­lows users to view and pur­chase cos­tumes from var­i­ous bands, the most ex­pen­sive cos­tume comes from the band Show­time cost­ing $10,000 for the plat­inum in their Spar­tan sec­tion. You can add on Mon­day wear for an ad­di­tion­al $100 and ei­ther a tank­i­ni ($60) or boy shorts ($50.) When the Sun­day Guardian checked the band’s web­site on Fri­day, that all-in­clu­sive sec­tion was com­plete­ly sold out.

The cheap­est cos­tume list­ed for rev­ellers in Port-of-Spain is a back line with the band Lega­cy and their 2019 Colours of Hope pre­sen­ta­tion, cost­ing ap­prox­i­mate­ly $1,586.

The cos­tume fea­tures a tiara, neck and arm bands, dec­o­rat­ed bra, belt, and biki­ni.

For a feath­er col­lar, you have to pay an ad­di­tion­al $570.

Aaron Kalicha­ran, man­ag­er of the Kalicha­ran band in San Fer­nan­do said his band of­fers a $1,000 sec­tion and front-line cos­tumes cost­ing be­tween $2,500 to $3,500 in an all-in­clu­sive sec­tion.

“Our ul­tra front line pieces are sold out al­ready and those in­clude ac­cess to a mov­ing float where rev­ellers can have their cock­tails and par­ty on the float while still be­ing a part of the band,” Aaron said.