KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

For the first time in years, the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA) in Tarou­ba was silent dur­ing Car­ni­val, leav­ing some res­i­dents call­ing the sea­son “bor­ing and un­event­ful.”

Pop­u­lar fetes such as Xpe­ri­ence, Out In South, and Stink n Dut­ty once drew crowds to the fa­cil­i­ty, val­ued for its high­way ac­cess, park­ing, and con­ve­nience. Last No­vem­ber, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced a ban on fetes, cit­ing com­plaints about noise and dis­rup­tions to neigh­bour­ing com­mu­ni­ties. Of­fi­cials said the venue, built for crick­et, suf­fered dam­age from non-sport­ing events and in­curred high main­te­nance costs that fete rev­enues did not off­set.

The ban forced pro­mot­ers to find al­ter­na­tive venues for 2026, with Air Com­mit­tee can­celling its Out In South fete. The Pro­mot­ers As­so­ci­a­tion called the de­ci­sion “de­struc­tive,” and the Op­po­si­tion ques­tioned why BLCA was sin­gled out.

Res­i­dents of­fered mixed re­ac­tions. Sade Thomp­son said the qui­et felt “bor­ing” as she and neigh­bours usu­al­ly limed out­side, en­joy­ing mu­sic from home. Adri­an Lewis wel­comed the safe­ty and con­ve­nience of past fetes but said com­plaints were ex­ag­ger­at­ed. Paula Allen not­ed that past warn­ings kept events man­age­able, while An­na Marchan said fetes nev­er both­ered her.

While the streets were qui­eter, many in Tarou­ba hope Car­ni­val fetes might re­turn, care­ful­ly reg­u­lat­ed to bal­ance mu­sic, cul­ture, and com­mu­ni­ty life.