Carnival 2K26 is to be the safest Carnival yet! So say the National Carnival Commission and the Minister of Culture, who are both assuring that despite a decreased government allocation, the show will go on! Rynessa Cutting has more from Friday's launch.
00:00With an outstanding bill of roughly $170 million still owed to Carnival stakeholders for years past,
00:08Culture Minister Michelle Benjamin is standing by the allocation to the NCC for Carnival 2026.
00:15The allocation this year is $157 million, thereabouts.
00:23And I had mentioned previously as well that it was a significant outstanding sum to stakeholders. Could you update that?
00:28That has been so for numerous years and the board and myself we are treating with that and that has never hindered putting on the greatest show.
00:40So rest assured all of that is being dealt with with the cutting out of the wastage in the NCC and what is done with the allocation.
00:49We are going to better utilize the allocation to fund the greatest show on the face of the earth which is our Carnival.
00:54Last year the NCC received in the vicinity of $141 million but was still supplemented with a $200 million loan.
01:05The new NCC chairman says the commission is streamlining its endeavors beginning with today's launch on the Grand Lara Promenade.
01:13This is a change. The launch of Carnival would normally take place up at the Queen's Park, Savannah in the Grandstand and so on.
01:21Together with the minister and the CU and the board, we took the decision that we want to bring the launch of Carnival to the people.
01:28That's why we are here on the promenade.
01:29And I can tell you just by doing that, the cost of coming here is a fraction of what it would normally cost to put on the launch of Carnival up at the Queen's Park, Savannah.
01:43So already the savings are taking place.
01:46The NCC chairman says the relevant stakeholders have been marketing next year's festival and he's pledging that TNT will live up to its reputation as the mecca of Carnival.
01:58Myself and the deputy were in Tobago just two weekends ago for Tobago Carnival and we almost couldn't get a place to stay.
02:05And we know that here in Trinidad the accommodation is already sold out in most of the accommodations in and around Portorsby and even beyond Portorsby.
02:15Room stock has always been a problem and only yesterday the Prime Minister would have unveiled the government's initiative for infrastructural development, particularly in and around Portorsby and included in that would be a number of hotels to be constructed as we go between 2025 and 2030.
02:38A lot of development will take place and that will help add room stock as we build the tourism product and as we build the Carnival.
02:48And with the crime rates greatly reduced under consecutive states of emergencies, stakeholders are certain Carnival 2026 will be the safest one yet.
02:59Crime is down 78% this year, right? This will be the lowest murder rate we've had in Trinidad and Tobago in more than 25 years. Tobago was incident-free. We were at Tobago Carnival. Incident-free. There wasn't even a scuffle in Scarborough. And I'm looking forward to the same thing happening here in Trinidad.
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