RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA & IN­NISS FRAN­CIS

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

There was dis­or­der in San Fer­nan­do for Mon­day Night Mas, as some bands went to be judged at Har­ris Prom­e­nade, on­ly to find the area des­o­late and de­void of judges.

When the first band crossed the judg­ing point around 12.30 am, they ex­pressed out­rage that the route had been changed with­out the band­lead­ers' knowl­edge.

But speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo ex­plained that the de­ci­sion to change the route for Mon­day Night Mas was a cost-ef­fec­tive move tak­en at the last minute.

Re­spond­ing to crit­i­cisms from band­lead­ers that the route had been shift­ed from Har­ris Prom­e­nade to the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts with­out their knowl­edge, Re­grel­lo said he was not part of the de­ci­sion-mak­ing. How­ev­er, he ex­plained why the de­ci­sion was made.

“They shift­ed from the Prom­e­nade be­cause of the light­ing tow­ers. It re­quired ad­di­tion­al light­ing for there and sup­port­ing in­fra­struc­ture and they were say­ing that you al­ready have a light­ing sys­tem down here (SAPA). Re­mem­ber there is a cost (to set up ad­di­tion­al light­ing)," the May­or ex­plained.

He added: "Now, you had a judg­ing point here yes­ter­day morn­ing and yes­ter­day dur­ing the evening and the night. So, if you have to move back there, the whole light­ing in­fra­struc­ture, there is a cost to it and giv­en the lim­it­ed funds we have, we tried to make two ends meet. It re­quires a com­pro­mise here and a com­pro­mise there."

Told that the fi­nal route was not shared with some bands, Re­grel­lo said: "The de­ci­sion was made yes­ter­day around lunchtime and from what I gath­er, I wasn’t in­volved."

He said the bands could have eas­i­ly made their way to SAPA once they re­alised there was no judg­ing point on the Prom­e­nade.

"In any case, if you have five hours to play with, you have more room to play your mas, it's not a case where you are lim­it­ed, so I see this not as a neg­a­tive but a pos­i­tive," he added.