Major stakeholders involved in the production of this year’s Lucian Carnival are elated that the mid-July event will take place.
Preparations have started, and in no small measure. The Carnival Bands Association has expressed its joy and delight to once again display its members’ glitzy costumes.
The bands are optimistic and filled with enthusiasm for the staging of an exciting 2K22 summer festival.
A recent media launch shone the spotlight on the major players involved in the festival’s presentation and provided band leaders with a platform to express themselves.
Red Unlimited band leader Irvine Springer recalled that “2020 was gearing up to be probably our biggest carnival year when the Covid-19 pandemic set in and it was decided to suspend carnival, the disappointment was felt across all the orange community”.
“So when we got the news that the minister announced that we were going to move forward with at least a brief ‘Vaxx Mas’, our camp was very elated and we were over the top because for two years we’ve been rebranding ourselves …and we’ve been looking at ways to improve our product, so this came at a very good time for us,” Springer declared.
The bandleader from Just 4 Fun noted that from 2020 Saint Lucia “was becoming the leading destination for carnival and it was going to be an awesome carnival”.
Despite the setbacks, he said, the Just 4 Fun group kept on preparing and having conversations “at every point, at every ear that we could get and now we are here the excitement is phenomenal. As revellers, we are pushing forward …again, the balance capacity is getting there, but with an open carnival we can state definitely that St Lucia is the destination for carnival.”
Springer added that “the frenzy is there” as several persons from abroad have booked accommodations for the July festival and in some cases, rooms have been sold out “and many persons want to know what’s happening in St Lucia”, with regards to the carnival.
Widely regarded as ‘the engine’ that drives the overall production of the carnival festival, the Events Company of St Lucia [ECSL] is all set to take on the task.
And ECSL’s CEO Lorraine Sidonie acknowledged the input and importance of the service providers in allowing for a smooth flow and making this all happen.
Sidonie stressed that maximum effort is put into producing an energized Lucian Carnival. In terms of productivity, she said, service providers work efficiently as they cater nightly for the various shows and events held during the festival.
She explained that the ECSL accommodates at least 500 local service providers for the events, and they wager at least $8, 000 to $9,000 per service provider.
“So the money we provide to the service providers can help to boost the economy of St Lucia,” noted Sidonie.
“And that is why carnival is so important …because they can identify with regular savings (earnings) in the economic sector. Not just the carnival directly that benefits from the economic fortunes, but other persons have benefited throughout the activities,” she added.
Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation (CDF) Raymona Henry-Wynne stated that the role of the entity is “to create a concept of what carnival would look like, what plan it would take and this would be our mandate going forward, conceptualizing the carnival product and we see ourselves executing that product …to ensure that we work together, and brand it for a finished product.”
She indicated that there will be less emphasis on staging community carnivals this year since the advent of the Covid-19 and with earlier indications for holding a ‘Vaxx Mas’ community organizers were left with not much time to prepare; and also taking precautionary measures to keep the spread of virus under wraps.
Export St Lucia’s (ESL) executive director Sunita Daniel asserted that the performances and displays by local artisans will be an integral part of the carnival presentations. She added: “For us, it’s the singers who are our clients at Export St Lucia, the dancers –we are speaking of the traditional dancers and how we incorporate them into the carnival.
“So, we’ll be trying to find means and avenues …for displaying the carnival.”
The ESL official added, “So, for us, the theme that we have at the forefront of our mind, is how you bring the St Lucian enterprise, the St Lucian person into the carnival product.”
Tourism Minister Dr. Ernest Hilaire reiterated that major marketing promotions will highlight the destination in an effort to ‘woo’ visitors as soon as they disembark on the island.
“There will be promotions at the ports of entry and you will see a reflection of our carnival,” said Hilaire. “It is something that I feel very special about… and when visitors land in St Lucia, they must feel that there’s a carnival taking place.”
He added, “So we will want to create that vibe when people visit St Lucia.”
The tourism minister this week stated that considerable progress is presently being made towards carnival becoming a reality in July.
“I think, when we first agreed that we were going to host carnival it was within the context of having at that time a more serious variant. We spoke of vaxxed mas, and we spoke of creating a bubble and the reality is that it is actually even more conducive now because as you can see the country is opening up, events are happening once again around the Caribbean and many parts of the world,” Hilaire said.
According to Hialire, “We’re actually seeing more opening for mass crowd events so we are actually better placed now for us to be able to have carnival in a more traditional form.”
He believes a strong case could be made for carnival in its traditional form.
“I think there’s a strong case now to be made to say that carnival should be as much as possible in its traditional form. Of course these matters are always done in consultation with the Ministry of Health and the CMO and we’ll be doing so, but you know, we are always very clear that we need to start moving on and to ensure that we open up all sectors in Saint Lucia,” Hilaire said.