St. Lucia’s Carnival celebration is no longer seen as a cultural event. That is not just our view, it is the perception of many who once were considered champions of culture and revelers themselves at one point.
In times gone, it was commonplace for carnival lovers to be innately familiar with the various carnival bands and the themes being portrayed for the respective years. That seems to be a thing of the past. Not only is it not information that the average person would have, it is also widely unknown to revelers themselves, the theme the other bands are portraying.
We have done a “survey”- not remotely close to being scientific- that supported our view. Making a few calls and speaking to others face to face on the issue, we found that the wide majority agreed that St. Lucia’s Carnival had deteriorated to an annual excuse to let loose, and an exercise in vulgarity.
Many have defended the annual occasion as a transformation and the evolution of cultural expression, citing in the process, Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival and even Brazil’s as events more expressive than ours. We are not sure whether this resonates as a proper defense, or excuse for that matter.
What we do know for certain is that St. Lucia’s premier cultural event has lost its flavour in the eyes of the public. For certain it is no longer a family event.
It has also been described as a money grab especially when you now have to pay, in some cases, more than $1500 dollars for a costume and charged $200 dollars for certain events. These figures are surely conservative. It is estimated that if one wants to attend a few carnival events and actively participate on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, the budget would have to be in the region of $4000. What is even worse is that there are institutions willing and actively promoting CARNIVAL LOANS. But that surely is a topic for another day.
It would be inaccurate and false to label St. Lucia’s Carnival absolute rubbish, after all, it has been attracting loads of foreign bodies which filters much needed dollars through our local economy.
The general consensus is that the key stake holders, the administrators of this annual even, need to revisit its structure, to ensure that while St. Lucian is busy attracting visitors, its citizens and its culture is nurtured and heading in the right direction.