CHARLES KONG SOO

charles.kong­soo@guardian.co.tt

The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion launched its Car­ni­val 2023 The Moth­er of All Car­ni­vals at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, yes­ter­day with a pa­rade of tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters such as Pier­rot Grenades, Dames Lor­raine, Moko Jumbies, Jab Jabs, Mid­night Rob­bers, Go­ril­las, Fan­cy  In­di­ans, Fan­cy Sailors,  Blue Dev­ils, mud mas, pret­ty mas, and steel bands.

Some of the head­line cast were Bun­ji Gar­lin, Patrice Roberts, Nailah Black­man, Na­dia Bat­son and oth­er artistes.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters said "It re­al­ly is The Moth­er of All Car­ni­vals, and we're plan­ning to make it the biggest fes­tiv­i­ty we've ever had in the coun­try for a long time.

"It's been two years and some since we've had any Car­ni­val in this coun­try and peo­ple are will­ing and long­ing to ex­hale.

"We just had To­ba­go Car­ni­val and that was an in­di­ca­tion of how peo­ple felt about hav­ing a Car­ni­val, and we have an es­ti­mat­ed bud­get spent on the launch of be­tween $ 1.3 to $1.5 m."

When asked if there were any sur­prise in­ter­na­tion­al per­son­al­i­ties sched­uled to take part in Car­ni­val 2023, he re­spond­ed that they don't need any for­eign in­flu­encers in terms of peo­ple and T&T was the mec­ca of Car­ni­val, its birth­place.

Alana Stanis­claus-Boyd said she was elat­ed to be there at the event. She said that it had been years of no Car­ni­val, it was like the essence of T&T to be there ex­pe­ri­enc­ing all the dif­fer­ent ac­tiv­i­ties go­ing on, and it was mind-blow­ing.

While the ma­jor­i­ty of peo­ple were pleased with the launch, it was not all smooth sail­ing for The Moth­er of All Car­ni­vals as there were some is­sues still to be worked out.

The carnival characters Baby Doll and Gorilla make an odd couple during the National Carnival Commission Launch of Carnival 2023 at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

ROBERTO CODALLO

Everod Clarke from Las Lo­mas said he came to the launch with his wife and two of her friends.

He said that they left home in­tend­ing to reach for noon, but they reached late be­cause of traf­fic.

Clarke ex­plained that they were made to stand out­side the venue in the hot sun.

He said he found this to be in­sen­si­tive and dis­taste­ful, they were then told that they could en­ter the Grand Stand at 3 pm, and then this was changed to 4 pm.

Clarke fumed that no one had the fore­sight to pro­vide a tent for the peo­ple to wait in the shade.

The pa­tron sug­gest­ed to some of the em­ploy­ees that they should al­low the pa­trons to en­ter ear­ly but was told the man­ag­er was not around.

He said he was not at­tend­ing any­thing free again, that he was go­ing to pay his mon­ey to choose his seat or go to Queen's Hall.