Carnival 2007 was one of the biggest in recent memory: it had a new logo, new board, and its own song but don’t get your hopes up for next year. That is because last night all members of the 9 member association resigned. That’s right. At a closing ceremony at the House of Culture, awards were announced, trophies were handed out, and cash prizes were distributed. But what wasn’t on the schedule was what happened at the close of the ceremony. Patrick Thompson who is now the former Chairman told us why they called it quit.
Patrick Thompson, Former Chairman
“The nine association members, it had come to the end of our term and the nine resigned. I must say that carnival is a passion for all nine of us but people must know it is a voluntary thing, we all nine had fulltime jobs, families, and after eight months of hard work to make Carnival 2007 be bigger than it was, we decided that its now time for us to focus back on our work and our family. But who knows, in the next month or two we might regroup and start planning for 2008. But the nine association members, we all resigned as our first term ended.”
Keith Swift,
So it was not out of frustration?
Patrick Thompson,
“No it was not out of frustration. It was just the end of the term but as we say, it’s a passion for all of us so come next year, you know.”
Keith Swift,
So do you see yourself serving again on the association, on the board?
Patrick Thompson,
“Well I could say that but as I said, we will have to see what will happen.”
So what will happen to the carnival? Well no one quite knows. A former member of the board told us the ball is now in the hands of the carnival groups. They, the former association members, believe the groups need to form an association and take up the mantle. The bands and association members bucked heads at a contentious meeting on Monday night. The controversy was over Saturday evening’s announcement of the Southside Masqueraders as senior champs for the road march. Ten minutes after that announcement, the mcee announced that Mother Nature’s Creation was the real senior champ.
