The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NCC) has con­firmed that its dig­i­tal on­line plat­form—Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val World—will go live on Fri­day 12th Feb­ru­ary 2021.

The Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion (DO­MA) has re­it­er­at­ed its call for Trinidad and To­ba­go to cap­i­talise on the op­por­tu­ni­ty to host Car­ni­val events in 2021, notwith­stand­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Car­ni­val and so­ca may be in Ron­nie McIn­tosh’s blood, but while oth­ers are dou­bled over in de­spair from the loss of this sea­son, the cul­tur­al icon has got­ten over his Car­ni­val ta­ban­ca for 2021. The so­ca vet­er­an and mas­mak­er feels that as far as the fes­ti­val is con­cerned, all of its stake­hold­ers should use the down­time for a to­tal re­set.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Gary Grif­fith, has warned against breach­ing the COVID-19 Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance Reg­u­la­tions by us­ing vir­tu­al Car­ni­val fetes as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to have a mass gath­er­ing.

Even though peo­ple will not be able to en­joy the Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence as they are ac­cus­tomed to by at­tend­ing fetes and danc­ing in the streets for two days, in­no­v­a­tive par­ty pro­mot­ers have as­sured that the vir­tu­al ex­pe­ri­ence will be just as good.

The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) start­ed look­ing at the pos­si­bil­i­ty of host­ing Car­ni­val 2021 vir­tu­al­ly even be­fore Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced the can­cel­la­tion of the event.

The Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) says it will be work­ing close­ly with all stake­hold­ers and the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and The Arts, on ways to in­no­vate the Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val prod­uct for a post-COVID-19 world.

Op­po­si­tion Leader, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar SC MP, is call­ing on the gov­ern­ment to have a vir­tu­al car­ni­val.

The Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts says he and the Min­istry are work­ing to en­sure Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val re­mains “at the fore­front of the glob­al Car­ni­val land­scape”.

So far two car­ni­val or­ga­ni­za­tions have in­di­cat­ed that their events for Car­ni­val 2021 have been post­poned.

Bar­ring any ma­jor change to the lo­cal COVID-19 trend, mas­quer­aders will be chip­ping in the streets for Car­ni­val 2021, Cul­ture Min­is­ter Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly con­firmed yes­ter­day.