RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The post-mortem on San Fer­nan­do's dy­ing Car­ni­val took place at the San Fer­nan­do City Hall au­di­to­ri­um on Wednes­day night and was at­tend­ed by a hand­ful of stake­hold­ers who called for more con­sul­ta­tion, bet­ter routes and prop­er judg­ing cri­te­ria for next year's Car­ni­val.

But San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo told stake­hold­ers that change was com­ing and that if they had to keep San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val alive, busi­ness­peo­ple had to come on board to lend sup­port.

The event took place on Wednes­day night at the City Hall au­di­to­ri­um and in­volved analy­sis of Kid­dies Mas, Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day, Night Mas and Jou­vert.

Re­grel­lo said the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion (SFCC) re­ceived $250,000 on Ash Wednes­day which rep­re­sent­ed 50 per cent of what was promised.

"We are keep­ing our fin­gers crossed, but we need to move Car­ni­val away from de­pen­den­cy on the State. We have to be self-suf­fi­cient," Re­grel­lo said.

The cost of Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do is about $3 mil­lion and Re­grel­lo said cor­po­rate bod­ies should be spon­sor­ing more events.

He al­so ad­vised mas lead­ers not to sup­port busi­ness­men if they do not con­tribute to Car­ni­val.

"These busi­ness­men stop buy­ing their cloth, their feath­ers, their wire, their paint, their ma­te­ri­als," Re­grel­lo said.

He al­so ad­vised the Jou­vert band­lead­ers to en­tice their rev­ellers to join Tues­day mas.

A list of rec­om­men­da­tions was made by Jou­vert win­ner and band­leader An­tho­ny Charles who called on the SFCC to con­sult more with the band­lead­ers be­fore mak­ing de­ci­sions.

He al­so said that judges should stip­u­late the cri­te­ria for judg­ing so that band­lead­ers could bet­ter pre­pare.

Not­ing there was chaos over the routes and a break­down in com­mu­ni­ca­tion, some of the stake­hold­ers com­plained that "the moth­er of all Car­ni­val" was so bad in San Fer­nan­do that spec­ta­tors were barred from en­ter­ing the city to see the pret­ty mas.

"Peo­ple were be­ing wrecked for park­ing. They could not en­ter the city and there was a break­down in com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee," one band­leader com­plained.

Long­stand­ing mas band leader Su­san Har­ri­uot who has led the Ecles Vil­lage AC and Friends for the past 29 years said the chil­dren were in a quandary dur­ing Kid­dies mas when the gates of the Cre­ative Arts Cen­tre were locked.

"This year when we got there the gates were closed, chil­dren scam­per­ing in a lit­tle area at the bot­tom of the street and there was no place for the chil­dren to dress. There were a lot of po­lice of­fi­cers but we were ac­cus­tomed to the gates be­ing opened," she said.

Har­riot said she was not in favour of a 1 pm start to Kid­dies mas as Chil­dren's mas was sup­posed to fin­ish at 5 pm or 6 pm.

Re­grel­lo said he heard about the wreck­ing and when he spoke to the po­lice he was told that "the law is the law."

He said he planned to make a plea for le­nien­cy for 2024. Re­grel­lo al­so said a new route will be used once the wa­ter­front project is com­plet­ed.

"We think with the com­ple­tion of work on the wa­ter­front, that will lend it­self for a bet­ter flow. We will avoid the hills and hos­pi­tal. We can do the Cipero Street, La­dy Hailes and that may very well be the route of the fu­ture," he said.