San Fernando Carnival competition suspended for 2026

The San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee has sus­pend­ed the com­pet­i­tive com­po­nent of San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val 2026, cit­ing re­duced fund­ing for the up­com­ing sea­son.

In a state­ment is­sued af­ter a meet­ing with stake­hold­ers on Mon­day, Feb­ru­ary 02, 2026, the com­mit­tee said fund­ing al­lo­ca­tions for Car­ni­val 2026 were low­er than in pre­vi­ous years and in­suf­fi­cient to sup­port a full com­pe­ti­tion-based prod­uct. It said it al­so as­sessed ris­ing op­er­a­tional costs and the need to treat all par­tic­i­pat­ing bands and stake­hold­ers fair­ly and sus­tain­ably.

The com­mit­tee stressed that San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val 2026 is not can­celled. The pa­rade of the bands will pro­ceed as sched­uled, and bands will take part in the pa­rade with­out com­pe­ti­tion or prize place­ments for the 2026 sea­son.

The com­mit­tee said band reg­is­tra­tion with the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion is open. No reg­is­tra­tion fee will be charged, but bands must com­plete and sub­mit the of­fi­cial reg­is­tra­tion form. All stan­dard NCC re­quire­ments and dead­lines re­main in ef­fect.

It said the de­ci­sion aims to re­duce the fi­nan­cial bur­den on bands, en­cour­age par­tic­i­pa­tion, and main­tain the con­ti­nu­ity of Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do.

The San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee al­so re­newed its call for spon­sor­ships, part­ner­ships, and in­vest­ment from cor­po­rate Trinidad and To­ba­go, pri­vate stake­hold­ers, and cul­tur­al sup­port­ers. It said sup­port could in­clude fi­nan­cial spon­sor­ship, in-kind con­tri­bu­tions, ser­vices, lo­gis­tics, pro­duc­tion sup­port, or long-term strate­gic part­ner­ships.

The com­mit­tee said it re­mains com­mit­ted to trans­paren­cy in Car­ni­val plan­ning, re­spon­si­ble fi­nan­cial man­age­ment, pro­tect­ing the in­tegri­ty of bands and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers, and en­sur­ing a safe, or­gan­ised, and cul­tur­al­ly vi­brant Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do. Fur­ther up­dates will be is­sued as arrange­ments progress.