The Trinidad and To­ba­go Pro­mot­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTPA) has con­demned the Gov­ern­ment’s sud­den ban on the use of UDe­COTT fa­cil­i­ties for so­ca and Car­ni­val-re­lat­ed events, call­ing it a de­struc­tive and short-sight­ed move that threat­ens to crip­ple the na­tion’s tourism and en­ter­tain­ment sec­tors.

In a state­ment, the As­so­ci­a­tion said stake­hold­ers in tourism, en­ter­tain­ment, and cul­ture were shocked and dis­mayed by the an­nounce­ment, which takes im­me­di­ate ef­fect less than 100 days be­fore Car­ni­val 2026.

Sev­er­al pro­mot­ers who had al­ready re­ceived ap­proval to host events at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my, the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre, and oth­er key venues were in­formed this week that their per­mis­sions had been re­voked.

The TTPA de­scribed the de­ci­sion as an­oth­er top-down ac­tion tak­en with­out con­sul­ta­tion, warn­ing that it dis­man­tles the coun­try’s en­ter­tain­ment econ­o­my and un­der­mines Trinidad and To­ba­go’s glob­al rep­u­ta­tion as the Mec­ca of Car­ni­val.

The As­so­ci­a­tion said the move, cou­pled with the re­cent in­crease in the cost of al­co­hol, has had a “cat­a­stroph­ic im­pact” on mas bands, bars, night­clubs, event pro­duc­ers, al­co­hol dis­trib­u­tors, and oth­er en­tre­pre­neurs who re­ly on the en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try. It added that many are now be­ing forced to con­sid­er clo­sures, can­cel­la­tions, down­siz­ing, or job cuts.

“For all those af­fect­ed, tick­ets have been sold, venues ad­ver­tised, and pa­trons have made trav­el and ac­com­mo­da­tion plans to align with con­firmed events. The TTPA is ask­ing: how is this ben­e­fi­cial to the coun­try as a whole?” the state­ment said.

The As­so­ci­a­tion warned that the re­moval of key venues such as the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my, the In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Cen­tre, and In­vaders Bay from the lim­it­ed pool of op­tions has left more than twen­ty ma­jor Car­ni­val events with­out suit­able lo­ca­tions.

It said events di­rect­ly em­ploy more than 100,000 peo­ple dur­ing the two-month Car­ni­val sea­son across mul­ti­ple sec­tors, in­clud­ing artistes, mu­si­cians, sound tech­ni­cians, make-up artists, cater­ers, se­cu­ri­ty, and lo­gis­tics staff. The rip­ple ef­fect al­so ex­tends to air­lines, ho­tels, restau­rants, su­per­mar­kets, and taxi ser­vices.

“The re­moval of these venues will force many events to cease, fur­ther deep­en­ing the un­em­ploy­ment cri­sis and di­rect­ly re­duc­ing the coun­try’s abil­i­ty to earn for­eign ex­change,” the TTPA said.

La­bel­ing the ban a “ret­ro­grade step,” the As­so­ci­a­tion ar­gued that it un­der­mines one of the na­tion’s most im­por­tant non-en­er­gy rev­enue sec­tors at a time of eco­nom­ic strain.

“Con­cerns about noise pol­lu­tion are valid but, as with all things, must be bal­anced against eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty and stim­u­la­tion, both of which the coun­try des­per­ate­ly needs right now,” the state­ment added.

The TTPA said Trinidad and To­ba­go’s iden­ti­ty as the “Car­ni­val Cap­i­tal of the World” and “Par­ty Cap­i­tal of the Caribbean” must be pro­tect­ed, warn­ing that “chaot­ic, last-minute ob­struc­tion of le­git­i­mate busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty could eas­i­ly be­come the death knell for the en­ter­tain­ment econ­o­my.”

The As­so­ci­a­tion is call­ing for an ur­gent meet­ing with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, who it said has pub­licly tak­en own­er­ship of the de­ci­sion, to have the is­sue re­con­sid­ered.

“We un­der­stand and ap­pre­ci­ate that there are those who de­sire change; how­ev­er, such changes must be man­aged re­spon­si­bly and de­vel­oped with the sup­port of the peo­ple whose liveli­hoods and fam­i­lies are at stake,” the TTPA said.

“The be­lief that there is some­thing wrong or ab­hor­rent about our par­ty cul­ture is ar­cha­ic and fun­da­men­tal­ly an­tag­o­nis­tic to any gov­ern­ment ef­fort to grow our econ­o­my. The ques­tion our mem­ber­ship and stake­hold­ers are now ask­ing is: what is the re­al in­tent be­hind this move?”