St James Children’s Carnival in jeopardy

With the 36th edi­tion of the St James Chil­dren’s Car­ni­val just weeks away, or­gan­is­ers say the pop­u­lar ju­nior mas pa­rade is at risk as they ap­peal for ad­di­tion­al fund­ing. The event is card­ed for Sun­day Feb­ru­ary 8, 2026, along the West­ern Main Road, St James, and is ex­pect­ed to at­tract hun­dreds of young mas­quer­aders and large crowds of spec­ta­tors.

The or­gan­is­ing com­mit­tee said the event, sim­i­lar to the Red Cross Chil­dren’s Car­ni­val, de­pends heav­i­ly on spon­sor­ship and fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance.Sup­port from the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion Re­gion­al Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee, along with con­tri­bu­tions from a small num­ber of busi­ness en­ti­ties, has al­lowed the St James Chil­dren’s Car­ni­val to main­tain its place on the na­tion­al cul­tur­al cal­en­dar.

De­spite on­go­ing spon­sor­ship chal­lenges, the com­mit­tee, com­pris­ing the St James Com­mu­ni­ty Im­prove­ment Com­mit­tee and the St James Chil­dren’s Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee, said it con­tin­ues to work to “make the event pos­si­ble”.

The 2026 edi­tion will be staged un­der the ban­ner “Col­or Wee Car­ni­val” and is open to ju­nior mas­quer­ade bands, in­di­vid­ual com­peti­tors, and kings and queens, with a spe­cial cat­e­go­ry for Best St James Band pre­sen­ta­tion.Cat­e­gories in­clude King and Queen of the Bands, Band of the Year in Mi­ni, Small, Medi­um and Large, Male and Fe­male In­di­vid­ual of the Year, Best Use of Lo­cal Ma­te­r­i­al, Lo­cal Theme, Best Tra­di­tion­al Mas, and an Open Cat­e­go­ry for the Yvonne Mun­gal Chal­lenge tro­phy.