Will there be Trinidad Carnival in 2021?

[abducted]

NCC to decide on Carnival 2021 in 90 days

A decision on whether Trinidad and Tobago's 2021 Carnival will be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic should be made in the next 90 days, National Carnival Commission chairman Winston Gypsy Peters says.

"We have at least 90 days. I think we can still watch it before we can make a call one way or the other. But the Minister said that we are looking at it and it is fluid," Peters told Guardian Media on Tuesday.

Peters said the country was lucky the festival is not carded until February 2021.

“We are lucky so far that we have three months ahead of us - by then we would have to say whether it is take off, or grounded,” Peters said.

He pointed out that T&T Carnival is a world event and an intelligent decision must be made on whether the festival is held or not given the health and safety issues with the spread of the virus.

“We have to look at the world, between now and next 90 days they could find a cure, they could eradicate it - a lot of things could happen during the course of that time,” he said.

He said that the go-ahead for Carnival proceedings would not necessarily be dependent on a vaccine but on how rapidly the cases of the virus subside, how well nationals cope with it and how well the world is coping with it.

Additionally, Peters said the world’s outlook would also be considered. When asked if the big Carnival bands would be able to survive on exporting their product to other Carnivals, Peters explained that too would not be possible.

He said: “No they can’t because let me tell you, we are the only country so far that hasn’t cancelled Carnival 2020 you know. So the big bands have nowhere to go really.”

According to Peters, other countries have already cancelled Carnival 2020 offerings.

He emphasised: “Jamaica is cancelled, Canada is cancelled, Labour Day is cancelled, Notting Hill is cancelled, Antigua is cancelled, Barbados Crop Over is cancelled - everywhere is cancelled.”

Nonetheless, Peters said this would not stop the planning for 2021. He said the NCC has to keep monitoring, planning and having discussions because the situation is still mutating. He said that it would be better if the plans for 2021 have to be shelved rather than having no plan to regulate its activities if it is given the all-clear to proceed.

The NCC boss warned, however, that if the festival is eventually cancelled the country would lose between $1.5 and $1.7 billion in revenue.

He said if Carnival 2021 is eventually sanctioned, it would allow the country to have a Carnival of a different kind.

“If the world is not able to come to us, then we can a retro Carnival,” he said.

Such a Carnival would be one where everything is created locally, where there “are all the costumes of yesteryear and a generation now can see what Carnival really used to be.”

But Peters said no matter what the outcome is, he believes COVID-19 will affect Carnival 2021 and future events severely. He noted, though, that the only concern right now is the preservation of life.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/ncc-to-d ... fbc491dd18

[paid_influencer]

why is this a question? no vaccine coming for 12-18 months. allyuh really want to take a chance?

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

I hope not, less donkey wine and less obese mampie doing the donkey wine on the streets, more time to focus on education etc is better for the country.

Carnival is a satanic culture, the bible is clear on this, man dressing up like devil wearing panty and posi on their head.

Woman spending $8000 for bra and panty then dumping their new born down a latrine so they can go wine on vagrant for 2 days is a culture we could live without.

[sMASH]

Does a trini breathe oxygen?
That "slave get a free day to Palance" attitude is part of the constitution.

[redmanjp]

all we could have is soca monarch and all competitions live stream, no gatherings would mean no fans, fetes, parades. wine and jam at home. unless there is a huge breakthrough in treatment (maybe the UV light?). but even so an influx of foreigners would not be possible as they would overrun our facilites

[Dohplaydat]

I was all for Carnival 2020, but 90 days from now is the end of July which is the band launch season. This means costume design etc will have to be carried out now still if the decision ends up being Yes.

Now, that can be worked out with the Carnival bands, but let's look at the facts.

1. Mass vaccinations will most likely not take place by Feb 2021
2. If Trinidad chooses the path of containment (better for covid-19 deaths) vs opening up the country (better for the economy) , we will have a to maintain a lot of social distancing measures from now until a herd immunity or mass vaccination is achieved. Allowing fetes and carnival is contradictory to that goal.
3. People need to plan their flights, costume bookings from Sept onwards. But with a global recession, most won't be doing so. As a result, carnival masqueraders will be at an all-time low. Would it even make economic sense to have a carnival?
4. Covid-19 will very much be around till then, Dec is also flu season and many epidemiologists predict the 2nd wave of Covid-19 around then. Carnival will likely just bring more flu and more covid-19 to us.
5. Given Covid-19 may be in full swing again worldwide, would we be in a festive move knowing so much of our loved ones might be sick or recently dead?
6. The only way Carnival can be held is if visitors (~1/3 of masqueraders) adhere to a 14day quarantine upon arrival. That's not really feasible for most.
7. Schools need to make up time for the time lost during this year. Carnival 2021 during Feb will just add to their already delayed learning paths.


My suggestion in end is to delay Carnival till late May or August (crop over season)..

By then it's likely we can have vaccines and vaccinate most high-risk persons. Also, if held in August....band launches can be held partially during the time of what is Carnival 2021 normally. So at least we can celebrate that.

Now question 2.

When will Election 2020 be held?

[Redman]

I think it's way to early to say.

What the airline industry would look like is the real question.

[De Dragon]

Likely responses will be along the line of "is we cultyah" and "de economy need Carnival" I do like how at least the pretence of a consideration is going on by a man who not only relies on Carnival for his supper, but is already talking sheit about a "cure" in 90 days. Facking amazing! Oxford University has commissioned a limited 800 patient clinical trial, and then phasing to a 5000-6000 patient study and the earliest date, provided that the vaccine is effective of course, is September.
Even then that September date is for a million doses alone.

[pugboy]

if they cancel are they gonna give the bands, soca artistes, party promoters, boat owners a subsistence grant ?

[sMASH]

Likely responses will be along the line of "is we cultyah" and "de economy need Carnival" I do like how at least the pretence of a consideration is going on by a man who not only relies on Carnival for his supper, but is already talking sheit about a "cure" in 90 days. Facking amazing! Oxford University has commissioned a limited 800 patient clinical trial, and then phasing to a 5000-6000 patient study and the earliest date, provided that the vaccine is effective of course, is September.
Even then that September date is for a million doses alone.

If they do a social distance carnival, it will prove the culture and art of it is not the purpose. Everybody just use it as a time to fete big.
Like church is not about God, jess ah time to put on a pretty Dan Dan, and bad talk the neighbor with the far neighbor

[zoom rader]

Ban this nonsense, only tax payers money jumping up .

[MaxPower]

I want allyuh go and wine and jam Carnival 2021.

Allyuh know allyuh dont care about Covid 19 or any diseases so go and have a time..

Will be a good experiment.

[Rovin]

i eh care but crapnival though alot of ppl do , only way for trinis to stop is if a meteor hit town or war break out & u might still see some of dem still wining up


right now they still discussing if d 2021 olympics wud even be held dise to tell u how serious others in d world take covid1 but we studying if we cud fete still ...

[adnj]

The world tourism industry is expected to decline by 34% in 2020 and be nearly the same in 2021. If Carnival is on schedule, it will very likely have significantly lesd foreign involvement.

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According to the Mobility Market Outlook on COVID-19, the global revenue for the travel and tourism industry will be an estimated 447.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 - a decrease of around 34.7 percent from the previous year. Additionally, this is significantly lower than the original 2020 forecast of around 712 billion dollars.

https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1103 ... y-forecast

[Soul Collector]

Some people may not have a purpose in life if it's actually cancelled, lmao. No more gyming to get buff, no fete to go or loan to buy costume. Wah allyuh really want people to do in these kinda times if not jump up and wave?

They really quoting figures of possible lost revenue though? What d fork is a 2 billion in the grand scheme of things? Thas parlour money for our esteemed members of government. They could just rely on the tax payers who doe beat up for nothing to fill that void man.

[Redress10]

That stupid carnival could ever make any 2 billion. Steups

[Dohplaydat]

That stupid carnival could ever make any 2 billion. Steups

Yea it can, but that's revenue. If 250k people spend an average of $5000 on carnival related activities (costume, fete, clothes, drinks, makeup, hair, shoe etc). Then that's 1.25B already. Then factor in corporate sponsoring, monies from music revenue, tourists coming (40K tourists coming and spending an average of 10K here, that's 400M right there).

Carnival extremely beneficial for the country in terms of employment bro.

[Kronik]

That stupid carnival could ever make any 2 billion. Steups

Yea it can, but that's revenue. If 250k people spend an average of $5000 on carnival related activities (costume, fete, clothes, drinks, makeup, hair, shoe etc). Then that's 1.25B already. Then factor in corporate sponsoring, monies from music revenue, tourists coming (40K tourists coming and spending an average of 10K here, that's 400M right there).

Carnival extremely beneficial for the country in terms of employment bro.

250k ppl, that's like 20% of the population you talking about (worse yet when you minus the older persons and the under 18 ones who ain't have money to spend), and just cuz you see a group of let's say 10ppl, how much you feel each of them spending. Maybe closer to 50k ppl will spend that 5k for the carnival season,.

[Redress10]

That 2 billion suppose to come from foreigners spending that and not trinis. I'm not sure if trinis even spending 100 million tt for carnival. Even still, it's a bad investment as it is literally money going down the drain.
Priorities.

[MaxPower]

I would like to see more Venezuelans participating in the upcoming Carnivals.

T&T is their country now.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

If carnival is not taking place, airports should be closed as well

[pugboy]

that $2b or whatever ends up in the hands of a private few hands and seriously under the tax radar.

I always find they should be better monitoring of all carnival related activities and possibly more taxes on them.

[adnj]

That stupid carnival could ever make any 2 billion. Steups

Yea it can, but that's revenue. If 250k people spend an average of $5000 on carnival related activities (costume, fete, clothes, drinks, makeup, hair, shoe etc). Then that's 1.25B already. Then factor in corporate sponsoring, monies from music revenue, tourists coming (40K tourists coming and spending an average of 10K here, that's 400M right there).

Carnival extremely beneficial for the country in terms of employment bro.

T&T's government accounting doesn't agree with the statement.

Perhaps they were alluding to the multiplicative nature of economic spending but the cost subventions don't seem to have been considered.

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Da­ta from the Cen­tral Sta­tis­ti­cal Of­fice CSO show that in 2017, there were 37,448 vis­i­tors to the is­land specif­i­cal­ly for Car­ni­val, to­geth­er spend­ing $335 mil­lion.

In 2018 a ten per cent de­cline was ev­i­dent in both ar­eas with 33,873 vis­i­tors and an ex­pen­di­ture of $319 mil­lion.

Es­ti­mat­ed Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mi­sion sub­ven­tions to 30 events over the pe­ri­od 2016-2019:

2016: $230 mil­lion
2017: $168 mil­lion
2018: $90 mil­lion
2019: $ 140 mil­lion

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/govt-spe ... 6a0b2e907a

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This statistic shows the average visitor spending during the Carnival period in Trinidad and Tobago from 2014 to 2018. The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is a two-day event taking place before the beginning of the Lent period. During the period of consideration - 19-day period before Ash Wednesday of 2018, the total expenditure amounted to just under 319 million Trinidad and Tobago dollars.

Estimated total visitor spending during the Carnival period in Trinidad and Tobago from 2014 to 2018(in million Trinidad and Tobago dollars)

Spending in million Trinidad and Tobago dollars

2018 --------------- 318.95
2017 --------------- 334.9
2016 --------------- 340.53
2015 --------------- 321.25
2014 --------------- 302.52

https://www.statista.com/statistics/814 ... cContainer

[pugboy]

them stats seem towards airport visitors though
eg do they include party/boat ride goer spending ?

[adnj]

them stats seem towards airport visitors though
eg do they include party/boat ride goer spending ?

The numbers are for estimated total spending by people that pass through border control.

There is definitely a multiplier in the economy but I personally don't see a 6x multiplier - so a significant portion of economic activity would then need to be local. If Carnival were to be canceled, that captive demand doesn't simply disappear. Some, if not all, of the demand will typically be seen at a different venue.

All that is to say if you cancel Carnival, you may be able to stop travelers from attending. Just as the stay at home orders were disregarded by some, Carnival-like fetes will very likely occur just the same.

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Industry reports indicate that within the past decades, the Trinidad and Tobago masquerade industry has become one of the flagships of the Carnival business landscape of Trinidad and Tobago. Carnival’s visitor arrivals have grown by 60 per cent since the late 1990s and continue to grow annually. Similarly, Government reports indicate that revenue from Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival exceeds on average US$100 million. The Mas industry also generates significant economic activity in a range of sectors in the local economy such as entertainment, media, hospitality and retail sectors. Additionally, overseas diaspora carnivals generate millions in revenue. Carnival therefore, has grown over the years into a viable and sustainable global economic industry supported by talent, expertise, skills and knowledge that are almost exclusively Caribbean.



http://www.acs-aec.org/index.php?q=pres ... ts-tourism

[pugboy]

well it is stupid for the authorities to quote figures only using border pass thru figures.

they need put head counters at the fetes and audit alcohol sales etc, very simple

[hydroep]

Virtual Carnival: wine and cock-out battam from the comfort of your own home...

[SR]

And yet every year government has to subseedyes carnival activities....

Sorry taxpayers ....many who dont even care for it

[pugboy]

I like how Inshan blast Faye Ann

she, her husband, and fadda have received millions in taxpayer paid soca prizes.

[Dizzy28]

They would want it. Last year or maybe a bit older Dean Ackin asked for government incentives for band leaders him self included.

if they cancel are they gonna give the bands, soca artistes, party promoters, boat owners a subsistence grant ?