By Carlena Knight
Carnival Monday and Tuesday mas’ this year will be missing one of its biggest bands on the road after Myst announced they will only be taking to the streets for T-shirt Mas’.
The band explained that, despite its best efforts, they will not be on the road for Carnival Monday and Tuesday pointing to the Covid-19 pandemic as the cause for a shortage of materials, huge price increases and uncertainty in shipping and delivery times.
Coupled with the short lead time to produce costumes, the band said it would make it impossible for them to deliver the high-quality product that patrons deserve.
It’s however full steam ahead for the Insane troupe as they have already begun advertising their costumes for Monday and Tuesday mas’, T-shirt Mas’ and J’ouvert.
Dumz Tree have also confirmed that they will be taking part in Carnival, alongside Icons and Chattabox.
This is the second time this month that a major player has made a public statement of non-participation in the annual summer festival.
A week ago, another entertainment company announced that they would not be taking part in this year’s Carnival celebrations.
Managing Director of Golden Eye Calypso Review, Dave Lester Payne, explained that there were a lot of things going on which he was not satisfied or pleased with, and had decided against operating the calypso tent this year.
Plans are however in the pipeline to fill the void left by Golden Eye with a new tent.
According to President of the Qualadli Kaiso Collaborative, Eugene ‘Kaseba’ Silcott, the QKC Kaiso Factory will take place on Friday evenings at Miller’s By The Sea starting from June 10.
He revealed that the Benna tent will also be opening today at the Roadhouse Restaurant and Bar in Newfield.
A new format will be used going forward for the Carnival calypso competition.
Silcott explained that, following a meeting with local calypsonians, several changes were made to try and make the event more attractive for patrons and build attendance numbers.
“We have created a different format for the competition this year, where it is a one-song competition in two rounds. You can have an artiste competing in the commentary round and you can have one participating in the bacchanal round.
“If you notice the name, that’s going to be the name for the different rounds. So, the commentary will be social or political whatever, and the bacchanal round is basically the up-tempo one where we want to get individuals back into the party mood like what it used to be in the old days,” Silcott explained.
Silcott further stated that the criteria in both segments will be different.
“The party song must be 125 beats per minute or more. That’s the vibes we want to create in that section, and the criteria for that competition is completely different from the criteria for the commentary section,” Silcott explained.
“It’s not exactly like the Soca Monarch in terms of crowd participation, but it is completely different because lyrics are still involved, but it is somewhere close to that area because we want to bring back the vibes.
“As you can see, the whole generation, the youngsters, they prefer the soca thing and we have to move with the times,” he added.
Two separate winners will be crowned, and a cash prize up for grabs with the exact amount yet to be finalised.