(Trinidad Express) The National Carnival Commission (NCC) intends to award over $1 million in prizes and incentives to mas bands and steelbands for creativity in Carnival 2016.
These are for competitions being introduced by the NCC.
This was revealed by NCC chairman Lorraine Pouchet at the media launch of Carnival 2016 last Wednesday at the VIP Lounge, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain.
Addressing the media about the plans for Carnival, Pouchet said one of the things the NCC is pursuing is the return of creativity to Carnival. She said, “We have made that our main goal for 2016 and have formed a sub-committee whose primary goal is to develop, reintroduce and infuse a more diverse array of cultural elements into our celebrations.
“We are also involved with the National Dance Association of Trinidad and Tobago to create an exclusive training programme that will increase creativity in Carnival.”
From this, the NCC will award prizes for the Most Creative Band Presentation—$300,000, $200,000 and $100,000 for first, second and third, respectively.
The Best Playing Costumed Steelband on Carnival Monday will receive prizes of $100,000, $75,000 and $50,000 for first, second and third, respectively.
There will also be ten $50,000 prizes for traditional mas bands which cross the Savannah stage on Carnival Monday.
The NCC will be the judge of these competitions since there is a current problem with the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA).
The NCC also intends to bring back the limbo competition at the Carnival Village next year.
Pouchet said the NCC has partnered with the Ministry of Health’s Audiology Services to provide seminars on the impact of excessively loud music on hearing loss to bandleaders, masqueraders, disc jockeys and other industry personnel.
The chairman also said they have been working on Carnival 2016 since after Carnival this year and have been building on the successes of this year’s event.
