Act­ing Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art Young says he’s hap­py at the lev­el of en­er­gy and pos­i­tiv­i­ty the coun­try has seen in the lead-up to Car­ni­val 2025.

That pos­i­tive en­er­gy was al­so ev­i­dent yes­ter­day, as thou­sands of mas­quer­aders, on­look­ers and spec­ta­tors flood­ed the streets to cel­e­brate Car­ni­val Mon­day.

Young was giv­ing his views on yes­ter­day’s Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tion at South Quay, Port-of-Spain, which was one of the judg­ing points for Car­ni­val bands.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Young said Car­ni­val 2025 has been filled with a lot of pos­i­tive en­er­gy which is part of T&T’s cul­ture.

First, he con­grat­u­lat­ed Pan Trin­ba­go for a suc­cess­ful 2025 Panora­ma fi­nals held at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah last Sat­ur­day.

He said Sun­day’s Di­manche Gras show al­so end­ed pos­i­tive­ly while yes­ter­day’s J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions across the coun­try went well.

“It has all gone well. Let’s hope that it stays that way un­til the end of Car­ni­val. I am very hap­py at the lev­el of en­er­gy and pos­i­tiv­i­ty. And these are some of the things that make us so spe­cial and unique in T&T.”

But, yes­ter­day, down­town food and bev­er­age ven­dors de­scribed their sales as the worst they have seen in years. Along South Quay bev­er­age ven­dor Bet­ty Ann Jack­son of 3 J’s Pro­duc­tion said her sales for J’Ou­vert were poor.

“Look, it’s lunchtime and three big bands just passed by and I bare­ly got any drinks sold. This year’s Car­ni­val has been the worst I have seen.”

Jack­son said last year, sales were a lit­tle bet­ter.

“I am hop­ing things im­prove to­mor­row. It’s frus­trat­ing.”

Next to Jack­son, el­der­ly ven­dor Di­anne Stew­art was al­so de­spon­dent by the slow trick­le of sales.

“Last year’s sales were much bet­ter. I don’t know why peo­ple have not been buy­ing. I don’t know if things will pick up lat­er.”

Ven­dor Ali­cia Gar­cia just shook her head in dis­be­lief as there were few buy­ers even though she had a prime lo­ca­tion ped­dling food items and cold drinks.

This was Gar­cia’s first time sell­ing for Car­ni­val.

She nev­er ex­pect­ed that sales would have been stag­nant.

“The bands go­ing up South Quay. They are not turn­ing off on Broad­way so there is no­body here to buy. I wasn’t ex­pect­ing this. I am just pray­ing for some pos­i­tiv­i­ty. This is up­set­ting.”

Next to Gar­cia, ven­dor Mikey George said he spent $2,300 for his li­cence and two spots on Broad­way for five days.

“The place is just dead. Peo­ple are not com­ing out like be­fore. To­mor­row I will know ... On Car­ni­val Tues­day more peo­ple would come out ... so I am hop­ing things im­prove.”

He said this was the third year in a row sales have been down.

“J’Ou­vert this year was the worst. There were few buy­ers.”

George said for Kid­dies Car­ni­val he made more mon­ey sell­ing his cold drinks.