Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor – Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Fire­works will re­turn to the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah for this year’s In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions, with Gov­ern­ment plan­ning a mix of tra­di­tion­al and low-noise fire­works, along­side a drone dis­play and cul­tur­al show­case.

How­ev­er, the in­clu­sion of high-noise fire­works has al­ready drawn crit­i­cism from Cit­i­zens Against Noise Pol­lu­tion (CANP), giv­en the Sa­van­nah’s prox­im­i­ty to the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo and Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, as well as new leg­is­la­tion re­strict­ing fire­works near sen­si­tive fa­cil­i­ties.

De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia that fire­works will form part of the Au­gust 31 cel­e­bra­tions. Asked whether the dis­play would fea­ture tra­di­tion­al or qui­eter al­ter­na­tives, Sturge said: “There will be a mix­ture of both and a drone show.”

He re­ferred ques­tions about the provider to the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment.

Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin lat­er con­firmed her min­istry is over­see­ing the fire­works, drone, and cul­tur­al shows, but said the pro­cure­ment process is still un­der­way. Quo­ta­tions have been sought from lo­cal providers, with sub­mis­sions un­der eval­u­a­tion.

“They have not de­cid­ed on the provider yet, but they did go out for quo­ta­tions,” Ben­jamin said, adding that a de­ci­sion is ex­pect­ed soon.

Ben­jamin ex­plained that the cul­tur­al com­po­nent will high­light the coun­try’s di­ver­si­ty, while a chil­dren’s zone is be­ing con­sid­ered to re­store the tra­di­tion­al fam­i­ly at­mos­phere at the Sa­van­nah. “We want to bring back that pic­nic,” she said, re­call­ing fam­i­lies ar­riv­ing ear­ly to se­cure spots for the fire­works.

The re­turn of fire­works marks a shift from last year, when the Gov­ern­ment can­celled the pa­rade and State-spon­sored fire­works due to se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns dur­ing the State of Emer­gency, re­plac­ing them with a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer and Re­flec­tion.

CANP wel­comed the in­clu­sion of drones and qui­eter fire­works but ques­tioned the con­tin­ued use of high-noise dis­plays. Vice-pres­i­dent Tama­ra Chatar said: “If these al­ter­na­tives are avail­able, why are high-noise fire­works still nec­es­sary? The Sa­van­nah does not ex­ist in iso­la­tion—the hos­pi­tal, zoo, and sur­round­ing com­mu­ni­ties have not moved. Nei­ther have the peo­ple and an­i­mals af­fect­ed by ex­plo­sive nois­es.” She stressed that CANP is not against na­tion­al cel­e­bra­tions but wants them con­duct­ed re­spon­si­bly.

Mean­while, of­fi­cials at the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo said they will is­sue a re­sponse soon.

The planned dis­play comes against the back­drop of new fire­works leg­is­la­tion, which took ef­fect last De­cem­ber 19.. The Sum­ma­ry Of­fences (Amend­ment) Act No. 13 of 2025 in­tro­duced a per­mit sys­tem and re­strict­ed fire­works with­in a half-mile of hos­pi­tals, zoos, air­ports, an­i­mal shel­ters, farms, for­est re­serves, and na­tion­al parks. Per­mits cost $100, while breach­es car­ry a $450 penal­ty. Fire­works may gen­er­al­ly be dis­charged with­out a per­mit on pub­lic hol­i­days be­tween 8 pm and 9 pm, but re­stric­tions near sen­si­tive lo­ca­tions re­main.

The law al­so al­lows the rel­e­vant min­is­ter to au­tho­rise fire­works by Or­der, sub­ject to per­mit and no­ti­fi­ca­tion re­quire­ments.

In To­ba­go, the Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary has ad­vised res­i­dents near the Ba­co­let Pa­rade Grounds to ex­pect tem­po­rary noise dis­rup­tions ahead of In­de­pen­dence Day. Re­hearsals are sched­uled for Au­gust 20 and 27, with a dress re­hearsal on Au­gust 28. The pa­rade on Au­gust 31 will in­clude mu­si­cal ac­com­pa­ni­ment and a gun salute, which may re­sult in el­e­vat­ed noise lev­els in sur­round­ing ar­eas.