The Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts has is­sued a state­ment re­spond­ing to dis­cus­sion in the pub­lic do­main on its pro­pos­al for stag­ing Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions this year, ti­tled “ A Taste of Car­ni­val 2022”.

Chair­man of the To­ba­go Busi­ness Cham­ber, Mar­tin George, is urg­ing Gov­ern­ment to re­fo­cus its en­er­gies from at­tempt­ing to host Car­ni­val events this year in Safe Zones, and to put the em­pha­sis in­stead on the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor, the econ­o­my and bat­tling COVID-19.

In cel­e­bra­tion of his first "icon­ic" win at the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch (ISM), Dar­ryl "Farmer Nap­py" Hen­ry plans to have a live con­cert for his fans. In a tele­phone in­ter­view on Sat­ur­day, an elat­ed Hen­ry said all he cared about was win­ning the ti­tle.

Two weeks ago, a group of diehard pan lovers com­mit­ted to their cause as they plant­ed them­selves on the Greens at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah (QPS). Sport­ing sneak­ers, shorts and face masks, and armed with chairs, cool­ers and eats, they com­mem­o­rat­ed Panora­ma semis Sun­day amid a glob­al pause on in­ter­ac­tive ac­tiv­i­ties due to COVID. To­day, on this Valen­tine’s Day and on what would have been Di­manche Gras, it seems on­ly fit­ting to ex­tend the love trib­ute to the home of Panora­ma and T&T’s heart­beat of cul­ture, food and recre­ation, the QPS.

Car­ni­val lovers go­ing through with­draw­al symp­toms with the can­cel­la­tion of Car­ni­val 2021 were treat­ed to the spec­ta­cle of tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters at Trinci­ty Mall, Trinci­ty, on Sat­ur­day.

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.