Kevon Felmine

The re­lo­ca­tion of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) stage at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, is re­ceiv­ing mixed re­ac­tions from the pan and mas fra­ter­ni­ty.

The large stage was near­ing com­ple­tion yes­ter­day in prepa­ra­tion for to­mor­row's Na­tion­al Panora­ma pre­lim­i­nary round for small and medi­um bands.

The stage will al­so be used for the Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta and Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tions and as a judg­ing point for Car­ni­val Tues­day mas.

In years gone by, the stage stood in the mid­dle of the field, fac­ing the stands.

How­ev­er, the new stage is now on the west­ern end of the field, fac­ing east. This means pa­trons in the pavil­ions would get most­ly a dis­tant left-sided view of it.

Band­lead­ers and pan play­ers said they were told of the re­lo­ca­tion but most of them had not yet seen it.

Pan­man Clyde By­ron, leader of Pana­son­ic Con­nec­tions, a small band which will be com­pet­ing to­mor­row, did not like the lo­ca­tion of the stage.

He said: "I re­al­ly don't like it. It is too far down on the west­ern side. I don't know the rea­son for that.

"It by the last set of stands and down there mud­dy and it not far from the toi­let. I am so con­fused."

How­ev­er, Pan Trin­ba­go South-Cen­tral re­gion chair­man Michael "Sco­bie" Joseph said mem­bers were told about the move and he saw no is­sue with the stage.

Mas­men/may­or re­spond

Ains­ley Matthews of the Owen C Hinds Foun­da­tion, sup­port­ed the stage's re­lo­ca­tion.Matthews, who as­sumed a lead­er­ship role in Hinds' Car­ni­val band af­ter his death, said: "It's a very good move. You find that for ex­am­ple mas­quer­aders af­ter parad­ing on stage would find it much eas­i­er to ex­it the park.

"Mu­sic trucks will have an easy pas­sage too. We are in sup­port of the stage."

Ivan Kalicha­ran Mas Band com­mit­tee mem­ber, Aaron Kalicha­ran, said Skin­ner Park may cause prob­lems for the bands as it would be dif­fi­cult for loaded 40-foot trail­ers to ma­noeu­vre an in­clined cy­cling track.

De­spite the band­lead­ers' dis­plea­sure, San Fer­nan­do may­or Navin Mu­radali, dur­ing a tour of mas camps and pa­n­yards on Wednes­day night, said con­sul­ta­tions were held with all the stake­hold­ers and the route was ap­proved by the NC­BA.