Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Hav­ing to change the lo­ca­tion of a large-scale, all-in­clu­sive Car­ni­val event is no small task, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing a sea­son when large, sought-af­ter venues are booked quick­ly and of­ten months be­fore­hand.

How­ev­er, plan­ning, in­no­va­tion and a keen eye for de­tail have led the man­age­ment team for the Brunch and So­ca brand to piv­ot from the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um to the Trin­i­ty Col­lege East Sports Grounds in Trinci­ty, a new venue which he says is not on­ly con­ve­nient, but en­hances the fete’s aes­thet­ic.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, mar­ket­ing con­sul­tant and events project lead for Brunch and So­ca, Aval­on Gomez, said the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to ban non-sport­ing events at ath­let­ic cen­tres has forced the team to think out­side of the box in se­lect­ing their lo­ca­tion for this year’s edi­tion of the fete, go­ing be­yond the city cen­tre in their choice.

But de­spite the ad­just­ment, she said the use of an event out­line has al­lowed the man­age­ment team to go for­ward with­out any fran­tic, last-minute re­arrange­ments.

“We have a frame­work we work with for a lay­out, we just use that and build it whichev­er venue we go.

“So the piv­ot in set-up wasn’t as bad be­cause we al­ready had a frame­work in mind, so we didn’t have to start from scratch.”

But even with their strat­e­gy, Gomez said the team un­der­stood the im­por­tance of find­ing a venue ca­pa­ble of de­liv­er­ing on the ex­pec­ta­tions of fete pa­trons, es­pe­cial­ly as the Brunch and So­ca brand has been fea­tured abroad in Mi­a­mi, New York, Ghana, and as far­away as Dubai, shar­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mu­sic and Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence with the world.

In do­ing so, they turned their at­ten­tion to the col­lege’s sports grounds in east Trinidad, a choice which she said paid off in an un­ex­pect­ed way.

“When we con­tact­ed Trin­i­ty East, it was orig­i­nal­ly to ask for per­mis­sion to use their Court­yard, be­cause that was the place peo­ple usu­al­ly use for all-in­clu­sives, cool­er par­ties, which is a paved part with nice trees and am­bi­ence. But when I vis­it­ed them and no­ticed the field, I asked if the field was avail­able, and they said ‘yes’.

“So I saw the green grass and big space, I re­alised that this has to be it, and we were there un­til the sun­set, and that’s what sold it for me, you see, when the sun be­gan to set at that venue? I had to take a pic­ture be­cause it was beau­ti­ful!”

But the venue, Gomez said, isn’t just scenic, it’s al­so a prac­ti­cal, log­i­cal choice giv­en the size, scope and theme of this year’s fete ti­tled For the Love of So­ca.

She added that it al­so pro­vides a wide, open area for pa­trons to so­cialise and dance the evening away.

In this way founder of Brunch and So­ca, Jonell Good­luck, said that the new venue builds on the ex­pe­ri­ence of a tra­di­tion­al brunch with a Car­ni­val flare.

“It pro­vides the ide­al set­ting for high-end pro­duc­tion, seam­less guest flow and the prop­er place­ment of key fea­tures such as mul­ti­ple food sta­tions, sev­er­al bar points and brand ac­ti­va­tions, all while main­tain­ing com­fort, safe­ty and a pre­mi­um at­mos­phere.

“Most im­por­tant­ly, the venue al­lows Brunch and So­ca to cre­ate an up­scale en­vi­ron­ment that feels ex­clu­sive, spa­cious and well or­gan­ised, en­sur­ing pa­trons en­joy a pre­mi­um event from ar­rival to last call.”

In this way, he said the Trinida­di­an in­stal­ment of the event, which takes place on Feb­ru­ary 15, will hold spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance to new and re­turn­ing pa­trons alike.