Yvonne Ba­boolal

Car­ni­val 2011 was a re­sound­ing suc­cess, Min­is­ter of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Win­ston "Gyp­sy" Pe­ters said yes­ter­day. "Car­ni­val 2011 was noth­ing more than a suc­cess sto­ry," said Pe­ters at a news con­fer­ence at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah," he added. He said the or­gan­is­ers achieved all their main goals, in­clud­ing rel­a­tive safe­ty for all and bring­ing vis­i­tors to T&T for the fes­ti­val. "We have done that. All the ho­tels and guest hous­es were filled. Car­ni­val 2011 was a very suc­cess­ful one," he added. The min­is­ter said all he got from vis­i­tors to the North and Grand Stands were com­pli­ments for the clean and spa­cious at­mos­phere.

Don Sylvester, Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) deputy chair­man, said the area at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah where Car­ni­val events were held were so clean he could have eat­en his sand­wich in the wash­room. Not­ing that the event was tele­vised all around the world, the min­is­ter thanked NCC chair­man Ken­ny de Sil­va, the com­mis­sion­ers, mas­quer­aders, ar­ti­sans and all who made Car­ni­val 2011 what it was. Asked if the Peo­ple's Band, an idea of his min­istry, was a fail­ure and a waste of tax­pay­ers' mon­ey be­cause there were more mu­sic trucks than mas­quer­aders, Pe­ters replied: "I would not say it was a waste of tax­pay­ers' mon­ey. "You did not on­ly have a Peo­ple's Band in Port-of-Spain. There were Peo­ple's Bands in San Fer­nan­do, Ma­yaro, all over."

He said the band was an in­no­va­tion and any­thing new could have suc­cess or fail­ure. Pe­ters said they had no prob­lem spend­ing mon­ey to bring out an­oth­er Peo­ple's Band next Car­ni­val. He said they would do a re­view and see if it was fea­si­ble. He added: "When you try some­thing and you fail, you try again."

Pe­ters said there were a few hic­cups here and there in Car­ni­val 2011 but the or­gan­is­ers were go­ing to work hard­er to bring a bet­ter event next year. "It's a work in progress," he added. The NCC host­ed gospel singers at the Car­ni­val Vil­lage at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah last night as part of a "wind- down" ef­fort af­ter Car­ni­val, Sylvester said.

NCC chair­man agrees

NCC chair­man Ken­ny de Sil­va said Car­ni­val 2011 was one of the biggest ever in terms of mas­quer­ad­er par­tic­i­pa­tion and he be­lieved the re­turn of mas to the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah was the big pull. He added: "It was one of the biggest I've ever seen in all my years of ex­pe­ri­ence and I be­lieve the pri­ma­ry at­trac­tion was go­ing back to Sa­van­nah. "More peo­ple played mas than pre­vi­ous years and it had to do with the love­ly, new fa­cil­i­ties at the Sa­van­nah." De Sil­va said that caused some de­lay since the space at the Sa­van­nah was not big enough for the vol­ume of mas­quer­aders. He said the stan­dard of Panora­ma and all oth­er com­po­nents of Car­ni­val was of a very high stan­dard, as well.

Fi­nan­cial­ly, it was al­so a big suc­cess. "You couldn't get a flight com­ing to T&T. All the air­lines were booked com­plete­ly." De Sil­va said if there were any down­sides to Car­ni­val 2011 in the Sa­van­nah, it was that the shows went on too long. "Panora­ma fi­nals went on un­til 4 am when there was no au­di­ence. By 2 am, peo­ple start­ed trick­ling out." The NCC chair­man thought 20 bands for the Panora­ma fi­nals was a bit too much and Pan Trin­ba­go need­ed to sit down and re­view the mat­ter. He said the Di­manche Gras al­so went on a lit­tle too long and the pa­rade of the bands went on un­til 11 pm Tues­day night, when 8 pm or 9 pm would have been ide­al.