The Tobago Carnival logo
As Tobago enters the Carnival space in October, the island is looking to stamp its unique brand on the festival.
Tashia Burris, Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation said this won’t be another Trinidad-style event but an opportunity for the island to show what it can do.
She said the conversations around Tobago Carnival have segued into a conversation about autonomy and stated that Tobago is ready to stand on its own and stamp its mark on the rest of the world when it comes to Carnival.
Burris said while many countries have a Trinidad-styled Carnival, Tobago will take the opportunity and create its own style.
“We intend to present a spectator’s spectacle and a masquerader’s masquerade,” she said.
Burris was speaking at the media launch of Tobago Carnival at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex on Wednesday.
Meisha Trim, Chairman of the Tobago Carnival committee echoed her sentiments.
“It is indeed our time to centre ourselves and declare an identifiably Tobagonian stamp on the global calendar of festival events. The October Carnival festivities will reveal hidden treasures of our cultural soul and reshape the Carnival experience, as we know it, birth a new and unique tourism product that is New World in its context, viable in its regional visioning and momentous in its local structure,” she said in her address.
The slogan of Tobago Carnival is Ritual, Revelry, Release. The logo and calendar of events were revealed at the launch.
Among the many events that will be held are a Night Mas, a Mud Festival and a TUCO Tobago Lime.
Diane Hadad, head of the Tobago arm of the Chamber of Commerce said that based on what she saw at the launch, she thinks the committee did well considering the timeframe they had to pull everything together but the proof is in the pudding.
She said from a business perspective she would like to see Caribbean Airlines or a combination of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority coordinate to ensure that the flights needed are provided.
“We want to see the port authority use the ferries, take our tax dollars that we fought very hard for two new beautiful ferries, let them move the people back and forth, put on extra sailings. So the responsibility resides with the Ministry of Transport, it resides with NIDCO, and it resides with the Port Authority. Let us have all our leaders that were chosen the role of leadership in our country do their part to ensure this becomes a success story for us,” she said.
Tobago Carnival will run from October 28 to 30.
Article Courtesy Loop News: Laura Dowrich-Phillips