Tobago will host its own Carnival in October.
The confirmation came on Monday from Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris at the Tobago House of Assembly (THA’s) Executive Council media briefing, titled “Mandate Monday.”
Burris said the date had already been selected for the festival.
“Carnival 2022 is on in Tobago and I am pleased to say that the date we have decided to host Carnival from the 28th to the 30th of October, 2022,” Burris said.
She said a ‘dynamic’ Carnival committee had already been put in place to handle the festival.
“We have a number of consultants who have agreed to come on board to provide their expertise and their advice and training to be able to execute this event and we are looking forward to the participation of all our stakeholders and everybody who has been waiting for Carnival to come to Carnival in October,” Burris said.
Asked about a budget for the festival, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said one had not been decided yet. Augustine said the members of the committee will also be announced next week.
“The budget for Carnival has not been finalised. I can tell you that by next week you can get that, I can tell you that by this week, an organising committee will be announced and that’s the committee that will be spearheading all the activities,” Augustine said.
He is encouraging Trinidadians to visit Tobago and participate in the event, as he said Trinidadian stakeholders would be involved in the planning.
“We want to attract Trinidadians in bulk to the Tobago space on that last weekend, we want all of you at that month-end period to engage as much as possible,” he said.
But Augustine said while Carnival was on, Tobago would not host a Jazz Festival this year. He said because of the unpredictability of the pandemic, the THA was unable to plan an event of the scale and quality that it usually did.
He said the Assembly also needed to take a holistic look at jazz festivals and their benefits to the island.
“We have to review the jazz experience and review whether or not it can earn the kind of money that we want it to earn and bring in the kind of revenue and international flights to the Tobago space and the domestic arrivals.”
But, Augustine is not ruling out jazz-like festivals put on by private promoters. He said several promoters had contacted him trying to find out whether the Assembly would support them if they wanted to host an event in Tobago. He said principals from Angostura have also already met with him, Burris and other members of the THA to pitch an event in Tobago.
“We are open to having proposals from private promoters and we are more than willing to work with established promoters who want to have some activity going on. I want to encourage promoters, don’t let the Easter period go by without doing something in the space.
“I think I see one event going on, and I am encouraging you all as much as possible and encouraging Tobagonians to support these promoters because they really were unable to make any monies these last two years,” he said.
Although he said he was not a “feter,” Augustine encouraged promoters to find creative ways to get the public to attend events.
However, he also included a warning, saying, “I must say this, because I see Secretary Dr (Faith) B Yisrael, took off her mask to drink water and look at me sternly, so I must put the caveat or the warning and say please ensure you are safe, we don’t want to go back to pre-2022 numbers in terms of numbers and deaths.”