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.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued to­day, DO­MA says there ex­ists a glob­al vac­u­um in Car­ni­val events, which this coun­try can fill, say­ing it is an op­por­tu­ni­ty not to be missed.  The busi­ness lob­by is urg­ing the Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts to con­vene a meet­ing of Car­ni­val stake­hold­ers, to cre­ate a Car­ni­val show that would do this coun­try proud.

Ac­cord­ing to the DO­MA state­ment, such a dis­play would be a boon to “a COVID weary world”, while show­cas­ing the best of this coun­try’s rich Car­ni­val cul­ture around the globe.

The full text of the DO­MA state­ment, fol­lows…

THE 2021 CAR­NI­VAL VAC­U­UM

We write as a fol­low-up to our re­lease of Jan­u­ary 11th on the sub­ject at cap­tion.

We con­sid­er this mo­ment to be a time laden with op­por­tu­ni­ty for our car­ni­val na­tion.

We main­tain that a mas­sive in­ter­na­tion­al space has been left va­cant by the ab­sence of ma­jor car­ni­vals all over the world.

If any­one were to do a car­ni­val pro­duc­tion of even the small­est scale we feel cer­tain that it would be en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly re­ceived by a COVID-19 weary world.

What we are ask­ing for is a thought­ful en­gage­ment with all our car­ni­val peo­ples to ex­am­ine the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a nov­el, artis­tic pre­sen­ta­tion as a cul­tur­al gift to the world and, to us the givers, a gift as well.

While we are heart­ened by pos­i­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion from many in the artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty. We con­fess to be­ing dis­ap­point­ed, again, by the mis­un­der­stand­ing and, in some usu­al places, de­lib­er­ate cyn­i­cism and mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion of our sug­ges­tions.

Our ma­jor in­ten­tion is to say that while the world is in a pan­dem­ic-in­duced phy­co­log­i­cal spi­ral and with all ma­jor Car­ni­vals can­celled, a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty ex­ists for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

We en­vis­age a scaled down artis­tic pre­sen­ta­tion, rich in the cul­ture of our Car­ni­val roots; a Mon­day and Tues­day pub­lic pre­sen­ta­tion in the streets of Dames, Pierots  and jab jabs, our Kam­bule per­haps with Covid 19 as a po­ten­tial Cap­tain Bak­er, drag­ons laden with chains, fan­cy sailors with room for their fire­men to stoke their fur­naces and, if we can stir the artis­tic pot strong­ly enough  Covid-19 Tan-Tans with  masked Saga Boys in close at­ten­dance? Many of the afore­men­tioned char­ac­ters have their cos­tumes stored from year to year and could be re­freshed quick­ly.

Such an ex­hi­bi­tion, in our opin­ion, could very well grab in­ter­na­tion­al me­dia at­ten­tion and say to the world “Look us!”.

We are not propos­ing a fete and par­ty scene but rather an ex­hi­bi­tion of cul­ture and art and, in this sense, we make so bold as to say that the pan­dem­ic might even be a bless­ing to art and cul­ture that will not have to jam with the las­civ­i­ous hordes who, by their ex­u­ber­ance, have made our Coun­try pop­u­lar but have con­gest­ed the space for tra­di­tion­al mas.

We are sug­gest­ing that this is a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty at a unique time for Trinidad and To­ba­go to present a cul­tur­al and artis­tic bou­quet to a world punch drunk from Covid blows.

We state re­spect­ful­ly that this is not the time for those who are ac­cus­tomed to keep­ing us in shal­low wa­ters—in the words of Bun­ji 2021, “Car­ni­val is a sea that runs deep” and strong cul­tur­al swim­mers are need­ed.

We need to think deeply and quick­ly. We think it cru­cial that the Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and the Arts con­vene an ur­gent meet­ing of Car­ni­val minds to for­mu­late a pro­pos­al for a mi­ni-T&T Car­ni­val pre­sen­ta­tion to the world and an ode to our­selves.

It is very pos­si­ble for our Coun­try to make its pres­ence felt with, per­haps, a se­ries of spec­ta­tor-less pub­lic por­tray­als on Feb­ru­ary 15th and 16th and to use this op­por­tu­ni­ty to pro­mote our coun­try as a des­ti­na­tion rich with cul­ture and artis­tic tal­ent.

We are re­vis­it­ing this sub­ject be­cause we re­main con­vinced that the va­cant 2021 world stage rep­re­sents a valu­able op­por­tu­ni­ty for The Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Our ir­re­press­ible so­ca artistes have al­ready writ­ten the mu­sic !

Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion