Eliz­a­beth Gon­za­les

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

With just over four months to go, prepa­ra­tions for the 2025 To­ba­go Car­ni­val are heat­ing up and or­gan­is­ers are hop­ing for a 30 per cent in­crease in par­tic­i­pa­tion com­pared to last year.

Pres­i­dent of the To­ba­go Oc­to­ber Car­ni­val As­so­ci­a­tion, Dex­ter Sandy, said the buildup is al­ready strong, with mul­ti­ple band launch­es com­plet­ed and more due in the com­ing weeks.

“We have had about three bands launched al­ready, and we have about an­oth­er three or four launch­ing with­in the next two to three weeks,” he said.

Sandy said the To­ba­go Pro­mot­ers As­so­ci­a­tion has al­ready pub­lished its sched­ule of events and lo­cal stake­hold­ers have been ac­tive­ly pro­mot­ing the is­land as a car­ni­val des­ti­na­tion of choice. How­ev­er, he says more needs to be done on the na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al front to at­tract for­eign and lo­cal vis­i­tors.

“We do see that the des­ti­na­tion To­ba­go needs to be ad­ver­tised a bit more … not just the in­ter­na­tion­al vis­i­tors, but the ones just over on one is­land, Trinidad, who some­times say they are not hear­ing any­thing about the car­ni­val,” he said.

While sales of cos­tumes have start­ed, Sandy does not yet have con­crete da­ta on sales fig­ures but he said the in­ter­est from over­seas has been en­cour­ag­ing.

“A lot more in­for­ma­tion and in­quiries have come in from per­sons abroad who have booked tick­ets and they are com­ing home to ex­pe­ri­ence To­ba­go Car­ni­val this year,” he said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion’s tar­get this year is to in­crease par­tic­i­pa­tion by 25 to 30 per cent, specif­i­cal­ly in band reg­is­tra­tion, fete at­ten­dance and oth­er cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ties like pan and rhythm events.

“That gives us a sense of grat­i­tude at the end of the day that what we’re do­ing is re­al­ly worth­while,” Sandy said.

While the num­ber of bands is ex­pect­ed to re­main con­sis­tent, or­gan­is­ers are push­ing for stronger par­tic­i­pa­tion with­in bands rather than ex­pand­ing the list.

Sandy is en­cour­ag­ing new en­trants to col­lab­o­rate with ex­ist­ing bands for stronger pre­sen­ta­tions in 2025.

He said there’s no bet­ter rea­son to take part in the fes­ti­val.

“To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val is one of the most af­ford­able car­ni­vals there is around the world. It’s safe, it’s scenic … not just for the week­end of the 24 to the 26 but come and ex­pe­ri­ence the is­land for a week,” he said.