News
Neil “Iwer” George, centre, performs at the Queen’s Park Savannah in February, 2023. FILE PHOTO/JEFF MAYERS –
While the National Carnival Commission (NCC) has no new dates for its Carnival stakeholder meetings, the commission did confirm that come Carnival 2025, there is going to be a soca monarch competition.
Its chairman, Winston “Gypsy” Peters, confirmed this on July 10.
Peters confirmed that there is going to be a soca monarch next year, however, he did not give any further details during the phone interview.
The competition was absent from the Carnival calendar for some years owing to a number of issues with finance being among them.
However, in April, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell invited parties to partner with the Government for a renewed soca monarch.
Mitchell made the statement on April 9 at the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation (TUCO) prize-giving ceremony at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
He said the competition had been absent from the calendar for too long and, the public’s interest had waned, so revitalising it was crucial.
Mitchell said the ministry had discussed it with the commission in 2023 but hosting it then did not happen as things did not work out as intended.
A number of people in the music industry expressed interest and welcomed the news of the competition’s return.
President of the TT Promoters Association Jerome “Rome” Precilla said some of the association’s members were interested.
Similarly, promoter Randy Glasgow also expressed interest.
Neil “Iwer” Gorge, the last Soca Monarch winner, said in a phone interview on Sunday that he felt good there was going to be a competition.
Soca Monarch plays an integral part in the country’s music industry.
“Since we are not having Soca Monarch, for some reason, it don’t feel the same way,” he added.
George said he wanted to see changes to the renewed competition.
“For it to attract people like me, it have to have change,” he said.
He hopes new judging criteria will be among the changes made.
“Since they stop having Soca Monarch, the industry change from that time to now,” he said.
The soca artiste suggested making it a concert series which would feature an artiste doing their new songs as well as those from their past.
“You have to sell the people something different to get them to come back to Soca Monarch,” he said.
“A party cannot have a better show than Soca Monarch. If that is happening they don’t need to have Soca Monarch,” Iwer added.
He also suggested that the competition be a national one as opposed to an international competition which would get greater governmental funding.
This would make it easier for politicians to defend the spend and it would be similar to Dimanche Gras, he said.
When asked if he agreed with the statements that government funding should not be a part of competitions like these, Iwer said there was no way a show like that could work without government funding.
Iwer also suggested a semifinal leg of the competition be held in Skinner Park, San Fernando.
“They have to come with a new start-over to get the generation to come back into it,” he said.
He also suggested that the new organisers speak with Caribbean Prestige Foundation founder William Munroe about what worked.
Calls to Gypsy for further details went unanswered and when Newsday contacted one of the last known directors of the foundation, Geoffrey Wharton Lake he suggested a return call during the week.
No new dates for Carnival stakeholder meetings
Gypsy said the commission wanted to have everything properly in place for the meetings and new dates had not been decided on as yet.
Meetings with stakeholders like vendors, the pan, calypso and mas fraternities as well as police and fire officials were scheduled to take place from July 8-30 at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. The commission was scheduled to meet with 15 groups, including Port of Spain burgesses.
However, the meetings were postponed on July 5. Gypsy said the new meetings dates would be publicly announced.
The commission recently appointed its new CEO Keiba Jacob Mottley on May 13.
That post was vacant for some time and was previously held by Colin Lucas.
While the commission refines its dates, TT Carnival Bands Association (TTCBA) president Mark Ayen said the organisation will begin its own stakeholder meetings at the end of this month.
Ayen said the commission had its own reasons for postponing meetings and he could not speak to that.
Asked what issues the organisation planned to address, Ayen said its members would discuss these and decide what needed to be looked at for Carnival 2025.
