SOURCE: ANTIGUA OBSERVER- Amid growing confusion about this year’s Carnival opening ceremony, the Chairman of the Festivals Commission, Elizabeth Makhoul has sought to clarify that the traditional event is not being cancelled, but rather combined with the popular T-Shirt mas’ celebration.
The decision comes after years of declining attendance at the standalone Thursday opening ceremony, which created logistical challenges, including road closures with minimal public support.
“What we’ve done is bring back the opening … and combining it with T-Shirt Mas,” Makhoul said during a recent interview. “Reason being, everybody comes out for T-Shirt Mas, and we haven’t seen the support for the opening when we’ve done it on a Thursday.”
The Commission faced criticism for disrupting traffic during poorly attended events. “We would get cuts for closing down roads and this and that. People didn’t come out and support it. The support was weakening year over year,” she said.
Addressing concerns about not introducing this year’s Carnival Queen contestants, Makhoul emphasized that extensive promotion has already occurred since their launch months ago. “The Queens did have a launch back in March or April, I believe, and they would have been featured all over social media. We’ve had the crown, so they’ve been introduced to the Queens for a few months now,” she stated.
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
Good decision. Tired of getting stuck in traffic every year and having to go way out North to get on All saints road
That is true…Now the hypocrites will come out crying and criticising the decision.
Tshirts mas has evolved. And I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with that because nothing stays the same.
Tshirts mas was, we dress in out tshirts,and shorts or jeans, style our tshirts, in a variety of different styles and jam. Now, we hardly see tshirts. It’s all body suits and half naked behinds. So, maybe we should renaim it to opening mas or something because its not the same anymore.
Would have been nice if there was JCI pageant this year
It always was a big highlight.
What was the reason or reasons? Is it because there were no sponsors? Just asking for my Lil cousin.
What ever you call it, it is not in the best interest of Carnival. At a time when sister countries St. Kitts and St. Vincent are investing more and putting more emphasis into every aspect of their festival, we are scaling down and reducing here and expect to have the same outcomes and effects. Not having a proper opening parade will affect carnival. Persons are already complaining that they are not feeling the carnival spirit and the opening parade helps to generate interest, morale, enthusiasm and participation. We have all but driven the final nails in the coffin of Sailing Week. Carnival is not far off .