Tears flowed from several members of the Tobago Carnival Committee as the media launch at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex drew to a close on Wednesday.
The tears, they said, were of relief and being able to exhale after months of careful planning to reveal to the world what Tobago’s carnival would be.
During that period they maintained their silence as stories were told about the exclusion of interested parties in Trinidad and questionable marketing trips to Grenada.
Tashia Burris, Secretary for Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transport in the Tobago House of Assembly, likened it to a period of childbirth during which they kept a protective veil over their “child” until they were ready to introduce it to the world. .
In that gestational state, the new members of THA pondered how to create a festival that would stand out among the carnival crowds in the county and how to ensure that the Tobago brand stood out.
“We’ve seen the evolution of Carnival over the years…Carnivals have moved away from being a creative expression to something with a manufactured, cookie-cutter look and feel. If you look at the stripes, you get feathers, bikinis, and beads, and that’s what you generally see throughout the space. Yes, you have some expectations in the form of Peter Minshall, Brian MacFarlane and the K2K Alliance, but overall, Trinidad Carnival has a homogenous, manufactured look,” Burris told Loop News.
Considering how they might distinguish their carnivals, Burris said they look to their culture, their Heritage festival, queen shows, Sunday harvests, folk stories and superstitions.
Tobago Carnival logo
All those aspects of Tobago’s culture will be evident throughout the Tobago Carnival weekend, especially on the streets among the bikini lines and beads. Spectators can expect to see the Tobago Ole Time Wedding, Tambrin bands, Tamboo Bamboo and other aspects of the culture.
“We are putting culture in the foreground. As I said, it will be a spectacle and a masquerade. What that means is that someone watching that carnival procession isn’t just seeing feathers and bikinis and beads, they’re seeing all the elements of what Tobago culture has become famous for,” she said.
Every event Tobago held during the year sold out the festival, she said.
“Heritage was really about selling the idea of having this baby and I’ve been talking about that. Carnival is a child. It’s where everything fits into the space, all the elements from the goat racing to the cuisine, so when people come to Tobago, you’re coming to an island, so the events will reflect that. We have iconic events that are attached to the Tobago carnival that you can’t get in a Trinidad carnival, in a Miami carnival,” she said, acknowledging that there will be signature events from Trinidad that people have known and enjoyed.
Burris emphasized that the Carnival will also be inclusive, everyone regardless of their size or race will be welcome in the space. For example, she said, while Carnival’s business model is to feature thin mascaras, there will be a line specifically for plus-size women.
In addition, while there will be inclusive groups, there will be room for anyone to play mas.
Traditional characters such as Dame Lorraines and Fancy Sailor appeared at the Tobago Carnival media launch
The idea of a Tobago carnival in October, once promoted by Winston “Cigy” Peters in another incarnation as Minister of Culture, is not new and the island tried an event called Tobago Fest in that calendar space years ago.
But it was the absence of Carnival this year that prompted the THA team to look at organizing its own event, separate and distinct from Trinidad, not only to boost culture but also tourism for the island.
Despite claims that Tobago did not want input from Trinidad, Burris said that was not the conversation.
“The reality is that what we didn’t want was for Trinidad to impose what they thought a carnival should look like on Tobago before we had a chance to define it for ourselves. We had the opportunity to decide what Tobago’s carnival should look like,” she said.
“This is really built to be an economic driver for the island. This carnival in October is really to ensure that Tobago continues to produce quality culture and events that would have a year-round crowd coming to Tobago, but then you know what, during the conversation, it all evolved . The conversation became whether Tobago allowed to present itself in the way that Tobago knows how to present itself. It became a matter of autonomy. Should we resort to an NCC in Trinidad, Pan Trinbago, a central government that will try to dictate how carnival should be? We didn’t want that,” she explained.
She said that there will be collaborations with all the actors of the carnival, especially for logistics, road management, capacity building and event organization.
Expressing a desire to see the Tobago Carnival become a melting pot for all expressions of culture, Burris said there may also be invitations for traditional characters in Trinidad to participate.
As part of their planning, a team from Tobago visited Grenada for Spice Mas to learn from their plan.
Burris said the trip was strategic as historically Tobago had ties to Grenada before twinning with Trinidad and as a smaller island whose carnival is more grassroots and community-based, they felt the Spice Mas model was more consistent with what they were trying to do. to reach
She said: “Tobago will never have a carnival the size of Trinidad and we don’t have economies of scale like Trinidad, so for those in the space who said come to Trinidad, Trinidad don’t do anything small. We have fewer roads; we don’t have the service providers that Trinidad has available, so we looked to our nearest neighbor in terms of distance and history. So we went there to see what works, community-style carnivals and how Tobago breaks down the hype around what we’re bringing.”
