Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Chief Secretary Farley Augustine says he takes strong objections to a view that Trinidad should take the lead in Tobago’s Carnival.
He said Tobago is more than capable based on other cultural celebrations it hosts during the year.
Earlier this week, NCC chairman Winston Gypsy Peters said he felt “disheartened” and “in the dark” about plans for Tobago Carnival after the THA had failed to resume talks on the event with the national body.
Speaking at yesterday’s post-Executive Council media briefing, however, Augustine responded directly to an interview he saw Peters give on TV.
“I saw where Mr Peters was almost saying ‘look, we know about Carnival leh we come and do the carnival for you’. And I take strong objections to that sort of philosophy in the Tobago space,” Augustine said.
He said Tobago has been hosting festivals much longer than many other territories in the region. He said the THA also has more festivals than Central Government in any single calendar year.
“If after having a festival committee, Carnival committee, we have TPAC Committee (Tobago Performing Arts Company) and all of these creatives in the space, if the creatives in this space cannot host and manage a Tobago Carnival, they will need to shut down all of these establishments. Shut all of them down and start from scratch. In fact, send everybody home, and let Trinidad come and do the work,” he added.
Tobago Carnival 2022 will officially be launched at the Shaw Park Cultural complex on August 17.
“And that will come along with some surprises, some wonderful surprises. You will see some things being cleverly, cleverly done that will allow for the media to understand and have an appreciation of where we are going with Carnival,” Augustine said.
He said when his team returns from Grenada’s Spicemas, they will be mandated to produce a formal report on what transpired.
