The first Trinidad and To­ba­go Caribbean-style Car­ni­val will take place this Memo­r­i­al Day Week­end in the Val­ley of the Sun, in Phoenix, Ari­zona, USA. From to­day through Sun­day, T&T will be rep­re­sent­ed by an eight–mem­ber con­tin­gent, in­clud­ing Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) Com­mis­sion­er Cyril Col­lier. Both Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Win­ston Pe­ters and NCC CEO Clarence Moe are ex­pect­ed to join the del­e­ga­tion in Phoenix. While in Phoenix, the group will meet with Sen­a­tor Leah Lan­drum and vice-May­or Michael John­son as well as mem­bers of the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty.

Sev­er­al lo­cal groups and agen­cies sup­port­ed the ini­tia­tive, among them the Min­istry of The Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism; Tourism De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny of Trinidad & To­ba­go (TDC); Car­ni­val Spir­it Events Ltd; Im­age Na­tion and Pulse8; Gayel­leTV; and Gills Pan Shop and Dig­i­tal Busi­ness Ltd.

This year, the peo­ple of Ari­zona will be treat­ed to a ver­sion of the tra­di­tion­al Caribbean Car­ni­val, T&T-style pre­sent­ed by the Caribbean Amer­i­can Phoenix Car­ni­val Cul­tur­al As­so­ci­a­tion of Ari­zona (CA­PAZ). A re­lease last week from or­gan­is­ers stat­ed that this is one of the few such car­ni­val events in the US that is of­fi­cial­ly sanc­tioned by the gov­ern­ment and the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC). The daz­zling pa­rade and fes­ti­val, themed 100 De­grees of Rev­el­ry, will fea­ture stilt walk­ers, steel­bands, tra­di­tion­al ole mas, ju­nior and se­nior mas­quer­aders in colour­ful cos­tumes and masks and Na­tive Amer­i­can dancers among oth­ers. The pa­rade will as­sem­ble at 1st Street and Madi­son at 6 am and kick off at 7 am, end­ing at the Car­ni­val Vil­lage at City Scape at 1 E Wash­ing­ton Street, at ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1 pm. Head­ing North on Madi­son, the pa­rade route turns East on Jef­fer­son, North on 5th Street, West on E Wash­ing­ton Street to Cen­tral Av­enue and in­to the Car­ni­val Vil­lage at CityScape.

Pri­or to the pa­rade on Sun­day morn­ing, there will be sev­er­al pre-Car­ni­val events and par­ties. Tonight, The Brick, lo­cat­ed in­side Ari­zona Cen­ter, is the venue for "Flag Par­ty" Down­town Phoenix. Pa­trons are be­ing asked to walk with their Caribbean na­tion­al flags. To­mor­row there will be three events: Car­ni­val Vil­lage, which will fea­ture live en­ter­tain­ment, food, art and craft in­clu­sive of lo­cal fare; the Is­land Fan­tasies Pool Par­ty at Ho­tel In­di­go in Scotts­dale; and The All White Par­ty at CityScape, in Down­town Phoenix, fea­tur­ing lo­cal DJs and en­ter­tain­ment. There will be a "Las' Lap" par­ty at Ocean 7 Night­club, Scotts­dale, on Sun­day evening.

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CA­PAZ is the dri­ving force be­hind the Car­ni­val and is a reg­is­tered non-prof­it, tax-ex­empt or­gan­i­sa­tion work­ing dili­gent­ly with com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers, busi­ness­es and the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty to es­tab­lish sup­port for At-Risk-Youth pro­grammes.