Stakeholders ready for Tobago Carnival

Mere weeks away from To­ba­go’s car­ni­val, some bands on the is­land are up to 50 per cent sold out.

The car­ni­val, which will run from Oc­to­ber 25-27, is ex­pect­ed to wel­come thou­sands to the is­land.

Last year’s cel­e­bra­tion re­ceived rav­ing re­views from stake­hold­ers.

The Rox­glow Con­cert in Rox­bor­ough kick-start­ed the fes­tiv­i­ties, fol­lowed by the Rhythm, Steel, and Pow­der event in Scar­bor­ough host­ed by Pan Trin­ba­go.

The Vibes with Voice con­cert at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex was a ma­jor event that added to the rev­el­ry. The car­ni­val was deemed a suc­cess by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce, To­ba­go Di­vi­sion, and oth­er cul­tur­al stake­hold­ers.

How­ev­er, crit­i­cisms arose when Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion boss Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters point­ed out miss­ing key el­e­ments in the car­ni­val, spark­ing anger among the THA and To­bag­o­ni­ans, who de­mand­ed re­trac­tions and apolo­gies.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, the pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val As­so­ci­a­tion said across the board, bands are run­ning out of cos­tumes, with some re­port­ed­ly 90 per cent sold out.

“They are try­ing their best in terms of their in­di­vid­ual mar­ket­ing to make up for the short­fall of mar­ket­ing from the THA,” he said. “But bands are ready, push­ing to en­sure they at­tract the mas­quer­aders.”

There will be a press con­fer­ence to­mor­row af­ter­noon to an­nounce ma­jor plans for the up­com­ing To­ba­go Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val.

The joint press con­fer­ence will be host­ed at Shaw Park Com­plex with the TTPS and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

Just last week, the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly ap­point­ed a new To­ba­go Fes­ti­vals Com­mis­sion CEO. Con­tact­ed for com­ment, the new CEO, Kern Cow­an, said he has start­ed work and will re­lease plans soon.