Kevon Felmine

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

While pro­mot­ers and some fete lovers are fum­ing over Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s ban on par­ties at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA), San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris says Skin­ner Park is open for busi­ness.

Par­ris said the sport­ing and cul­tur­al venue has long host­ed large-scale events, in­clud­ing con­cert per­for­mances by the Jack­son Five and Chronixx, and re­mains home to the Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta, Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Fi­nals, and Panora­ma com­pe­ti­tions.

He said the coun­cil will meet to dis­cuss ex­pand­ing Skin­ner Park’s use for the up­com­ing Car­ni­val sea­son. Par­ris not­ed there was al­ready in­ter­est from event or­gan­is­ers, as the space can ac­com­mo­date sev­er­al events si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly.

On Wednes­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced an im­me­di­ate halt to fetes at the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my, say­ing the noise had be­come un­bear­able for res­i­dents.

She added that be­fore 2025 ends, Gov­ern­ment will pass the Fire­works Leg­is­la­tion in Par­lia­ment and in­tro­duce en­hanced noise pol­lu­tion laws to reg­u­late des­ig­nat­ed qui­et hours and new re­stric­tions on fetes, mu­sic trucks, res­i­den­tial par­ties, and bars.

Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion Chair­man Shankar Bidaisee sup­port­ed the de­ci­sion, say­ing the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my was built for crick­et, not par­ties. He claimed fetes had caused sig­nif­i­cant wear and tear, high main­te­nance costs, and se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns.

How­ev­er, Par­ris said the ban cre­ates an op­por­tu­ni­ty for the cor­po­ra­tion, which man­ages Skin­ner Park, to col­lab­o­rate with pro­mot­ers to cre­ate an en­vi­ron­ment suit­able for all types of events.

“Imag­ine Car­ni­val with­out fetes. Fetes is what leads in­to Car­ni­val Mon­day and Tues­day, and that is where the for­eign ex­change is de­rived. That’s part of the or­ange econ­o­my. It more or less stim­u­lates an­oth­er part of the econ­o­my that cer­tain­ly con­tributes to­wards GDP,” Par­ris said. Com­ment­ing on the ban, he ac­knowl­edged that the Gov­ern­ment had the au­thor­i­ty to make de­ci­sions on its as­sets based on its own ad­vice, but warned of wider eco­nom­ic fall­out for the cul­tur­al sec­tor.

Par­ris ac­knowl­edged that events can cause mi­nor dam­age dur­ing in­stal­la­tion, but said the cor­po­ra­tion charges a cau­tion fee, which is with­held if a pro­mot­er fails to re­store the venue to its orig­i­nal con­di­tion.

Weigh­ing in on the is­sue, Omari Ash­by, Lec­tur­er in Car­ni­val Stud­ies and Cre­ative Arts, said the ban on Car­ni­val fetes at Ude­cott sport­ing fa­cil­i­ties rep­re­sents a back­ward step for T&T’s cul­tur­al and cre­ative econ­o­my.

He said the world’s biggest and most pres­ti­gious sports are­nas op­er­ate as mul­ti-use cul­tur­al hubs, host­ing elite sport, mega-con­certs, fes­ti­vals, and mass events by de­sign.

“The in­ter­na­tion­al re­al­i­ty is that noise is man­aged, not banned. Every ma­jor out­door are­na in the UK, US, and Eu­rope is lo­cat­ed near res­i­den­tial ar­eas. Yet, even with stricter reg­u­la­tions, coun­tries do not re­spond to noise by ban­ning cul­tur­al events. Wem­b­ley Sta­di­um sits in the mid­dle of Brent, one of the UK’s most dense­ly pop­u­lat­ed bor­oughs, and still hosts con­certs un­der deci­bel mon­i­tor­ing and event cur­fews,” Ash­by said.

He said if the claim is that fetes cause noise pol­lu­tion, it ad­mits the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) has not been prop­er­ly en­forc­ing its own reg­u­la­tions.

The Fire­works Ac­tion Coali­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (FACTT), how­ev­er, com­mend­ed Per­sad-Bisses­sar.

Spokesper­son Roger Mar­shall said fete pro­mot­ers, fire­works dis­trib­u­tors, and users had am­ple op­por­tu­ni­ty to act re­spon­si­bly and show com­pas­sion and re­spect for oth­ers, yet con­tin­ued to pro­mote big­ger and loud­er events.

“We must, as a peo­ple, be bet­ter than that. Her promise to pass fire­works leg­is­la­tion be­fore the end of this year and treat with noise pol­lu­tion shows much-need­ed com­pas­sion and is long over­due,” he said.