The Business of Carnival

Wife of President Anthony Carmona, Reema Carmona, believes that TT’s Carnival manufacturing industry is part of the puzzle in terms of TT’s economic diversification.

In an address at the launch of the Red Cross Carnival, Carmona said, “Carnival, with its inherent energy, has always offered us endless possibilities and we have often dropped the baton in tapping in to such possibilities.” She added the country’s current economic downturn could be made into an economic “upturn” through the country’s annual festival.

Carmona was speaking to the Carnival manufacturing industry.

She said, “We must engage more comprehensively with the economics of mas. “We need to start creating and manufacturing our own artificial feathers, head pieces, beads, glitter and costumes.

“The artificial feather, glitter and beads have been constant staples in our Mas culture yet we do not have factories producing these items for TT, the Caribbean region and the world. Think of the foreign exchange this would generate and the consequent employment,” she said.

Carmona’s words were particularly heartening for one of the country’s leading businessmen, Gregory Aboud.

Speaking in his capacity as the owner of Jimmy Aboud the Textile King, located at the corner of Henry and Queen Streets, Port-of-Spain, he said, “She has spoken at an opportune time. There is no better time than to discuss Carnival before the event.” The country, Aboud said, often made a mistake talking about Carnival after the fact.

He added that the background to the diminishing trade in Carnival materials has to do with the direction the entire annual event has been taking. “The management of Carnival failed the national community in the allocation of resources.” For Aboud, “disproportionate amounts” have been given to the certain interest groups in terms of “appearance fees and prize money” and, “a paltry sum allocated to costumed bands and traditional Carnival characters.” Aboud added that today’s Carnival makers accentuate the, “happiness, the exuberance and the enjoyment of Carnival and (do) not use the opportunity to portray or exhibit costumes that are relevant to local or international issues or historic imperatives.” However, he said the bikini mas has been the most successful, self-sustaining element of today’s Carnival and should not be demonised. “That is operating without straining the treasury and actually it is the only aspect of Carnival that is growing.” Aboud said, from an economic perspective, this so-called “mas without meaning” is actually the only aspect of Carnival that foreigners are paying for and are purchasing costumes online.

The country, he added, should try to understand this phenomena and try to marry the success of this, “party mas with a more traditional mas of portrayal and masquerade.

“The management of Carnival in which the Carnival is doling out large sums of money to interest groups has hurt the creative and market driven ingenuity of the Carnival,” he said.

The National Carnival Commission has a $300 million expenditure budget while revenue from advertising and ticket sales was $4 million. The answer to what should be done to revive and re-build a strong manufacturing industry and therefore a strong Carnival lies in making the Carnival products such as pan self-sufficient.

He also suggested that separate “loops” be created for the different Carnival products.

Pan, costumed mas and bikini should have their own spaces where they are separate but not apart from each other. “As it stands now, the pan movement is content to draw tens of millions of dollars in appearance fees and prize money and seems content with its almost total absence from the road on Carnival Monday and Tuesday,” he said.

Pan, he stressed needed to engage a younger audience again.

“I would, respectfully, suggest that traditional bands and costumed bands be allowed to parade on streets which form a separate circuit from the very successful Carnival party bands and that pan be given a separate root as well where the indigenous, mysterious and enchanting melody of the steel drum does not have to compete with the music personal handset.” Junior Gittens of United Leather Craft Centre, Chacon St, Port-of-Spain, noted that there has been a significant decrease persons purchasing raw materials for the production of boots and other Carnival items. Gittens sells rubber, leather and accessories for the production of Carnival boots. The importation of these products, he said, has led to the decrease in sales. “People don’t’ appreciate the local leather industry,” he said.

A major problem, he added, was that people do not like to buy local. “Local designers and other people are studying to import when we have talented people down here.” Although, Gittens said, the work was far superior to what one would usually find on the global market, the opportunity for leather crafts men to showcase themselves was missing.

Samaroo’s: Manufacture costumes instead For managing director, Steve Samaroo – whose family business Samaroo’s has supplied the Carnival industry for more 66 years – better Carnival manufacturing business is to be found in the manufacturing of costumes.

Business Day visited the business at its head office at 49 Boundary Rd, San Juan, where a constant stream of mas designers streamed in. While Samaroo welcomed the comments by Carmona, he felt that the suggestion of manufacturing beads, glitter and feathers did not make economic sense.

For Samaroo, TT would be unable to competitively compete with larger markets such as China. “Who would you be exporting too?” he asked when asked what he felt of the suggestion. “Who will invest in the manufacturing? Where would we get the birds to get the feather?” A more logical and feasible suggestion, Samaroo said, would be to develop a strong robust costume manufacturing industry.

Considering the archaic legislation which prohibited a ban on the purchase of feathers from China and South Africa, he said the Government also needed to look at its policy direction with respect to Carnival. In addition, he said, the Government needed to employ more people in the Arts and Culture sector to further its growth and development, as well as to implement certain policies, possibly tariffs, which would dissuade people form importing and encourage greater local innovation. Samaroo said he was heartened by the growth of the regional Carnivals which he saw as the future of TT’s Carnival.

“The older people are dying out and we need to teach the younger generations. Develop the talent of the younger generations. Get the older generation to teach the younger ones,” he said.

Samaroo was confident of one thing, however. That no matter how the Carnival evolved, it would never die. “It is ingrained in our blood,” he said.