We need astute management for Carnival

THE EDITOR: Every year at Carnival there must be some controversy or some protest, and this year it was not different from the previous years. This year a certain female entertainer, and a steel band went before the courts to lodge their protests. Every year in the Carnival season some calypsonian must also die. This year it was a new star on the horizon, Onika Bostic. Although she was an entertainer and not a full fledged calypsonian she was still taken away at this time.

Some other musicians also departed this life in this season as though it was time to vacate the Carnival scene. It was sad to see the new star dying in this fashion, but the Creator knows best, and He works in mysterious ways. Now that Carnival is over we read of the same complaints of the long time the big bands take to cross the stage at the Savannah. The main and the best place for the Carnival celebrations is the Grand Stand at the Savannah. Those in authority have the responsibility to regulate this malady, and control the bands.

The point of finding a new venue is irrelevant. The Savannah is the mecca for our Carnival. The problem is not the venue, but the management with the bands in the Savannah. We boast that our Carnival is the greatest show on earth, but we must prove that by having two days of pretty mask not only on Tuesday. Saturday and Sunday is the children’s carnival, and they wear their costumes for the two days without hindrance, so the adults could do the same for the two days. We need astute management for our Carnival. Incidentally the children even wore their costume the previous Sunday in St James.

On Carnival Monday the bands decide to shelve their pretty costume while playing something else, and then in so doing deprive the onlookers, and the tourists of the great spectacle of two days of beautiful costume bands, then on Tuesday the confusion starts at the Savannah with everybody crowding the stands for the competition. I wish to suggest the selecting of the two days by the band leaders to decide what day to appear on the Savannah stage so we won’t have all the bands trying to make Carnival Tuesday the only Carnival day in Trinidad. At first there would be protest as usual, but they would eventually accept this new arrangement when they see how it works to the benefit of all the mask players.

Then it means that we would have beautiful bands for two days, then and only then we would truly be able to say that our carnival is the greatest show on earth where the two days would be absorbed in the beautiful spectacle that Trinidad Carnival is always sure to produce and must maintain. The Grand Stand is the best place for our Carnival.

HORACE DESORMEAUX
Maraval