Mitchell pleased with Tobago Carnival’s progress

Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell says he is im­pressed by the way the To­ba­go Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val has de­vel­oped over the years and the high re­turns it has brought for hote­liers on the is­land.

Speak­ing to the me­dia on Sat­ur­day dur­ing the Pan Trin­ba­go Rhythm, Steel and Pow­der event, Mitchell said the re­ports of the Car­ni­val on the tourism sec­tor have been pos­i­tive.

He said, “I am hap­py to see how the To­ba­go Car­ni­val has de­vel­oped and it is re­al­ly caus­ing a boom to the tourism sec­tor here in To­ba­go. Flights are mov­ing seam­less­ly and I’m re­al­ly hap­py to see a bumper Car­ni­val and I’m re­al­ly hap­py to see how it is turn­ing and de­vel­op­ing over the years.

“I have spo­ken to a cou­ple of hote­liers, they are ex­treme­ly hap­py. Trav­el­ling over here to­day, the flights seem to be mov­ing smooth­ly.”

The cur­tains came down on the three-day event last evening, af­ter bands with hun­dreds of mas­quer­aders flocked the streets of Scar­bor­ough for a fi­nal jump in the Pa­rade of the Bands cel­e­bra­tion.

How­ev­er, while pa­trons were hap­py for the im­prove­ments to the J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions on Sat­ur­day, those Guardian Me­dia spoke to yes­ter­day said they were dis­ap­point­ed by lack of or­gan­i­sa­tion for the Pa­rade of the Bands.

Sim­i­lar to last year, pa­trons were pac­ing the streets ask­ing when the event was ex­pect­ed to start. Around 3.30 pm, the first band turned on­to Mil­ford Road.

How­ev­er, there was an en­joy­able dis­play from tra­di­tion­al mas­quer­aders along the pa­rade route hours ear­li­er.

As pa­trons en­joyed the show, some of them com­plained about the over­flow­ing trash bins along the route, with plas­tic bot­tles and oth­er garbage spew­ing from the side­walk over to the streets.

Mean­while, DCP Suzette Mar­tin deemed the Car­ni­val a safe one.

Dur­ing a pa­trol with her of­fi­cers, Mar­tin told Guardian Me­dia her col­leagues did an ex­cel­lent job.

She said, “We are on track to make this one of the safest, in­ci­dent free and most en­joy­able Car­ni­vals in re­cent mem­o­ry. I want to thank res­i­dents and vis­i­tors and Car­ni­val par­tic­i­pants and the TTPS and oth­er law en­force­ment on mak­ing this an in­ci­dent free cel­e­bra­tion.”

Al­though there were no in­ci­dents re­port­ed dur­ing any Car­ni­val-re­lat­ed events, there was one iso­lat­ed in­ci­dent where men were in­volved in a fight in­side a fast-food out­let Scar­bor­ough.

To­ba­go Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Dex­ter Sandy al­so said the ex­e­cu­tion of the Car­ni­val was suc­cess­ful.

He briefly told Guardian Me­dia, “It was great. We had a ball and a blast. There are no com­plaints. Every­thing is just great.”