Dr Mar­lene Attzs

Econ­o­mist

Every year, as the streets of Port-of-Spain, San Fer­nan­do, Ari­ma, Arou­ca, Tu­na­puna, and Scar­bor­ough, among many oth­ers, ex­plode with mu­sic, move­ment, and colour, a fa­mil­iar de­bate resur­faces: With de­clin­ing gov­ern­ment rev­enues, is Car­ni­val worth the cost that the Gov­ern­ment in­curs an­nu­al­ly? Many ques­tion whether large sub­ven­tions for Car­ni­val are jus­ti­fied, es­pe­cial­ly when pub­lic ser­vices like health­care, ed­u­ca­tion, and in­fra­struc­ture are un­der­fund­ed. But to re­duce Car­ni­val to just dol­lars and cents is to fun­da­men­tal­ly mis­un­der­stand its true eco­nom­ic and so­cial im­pact.

Bun­ji Gar­lin’s song Heart of the Peo­ple (2021), re­leased dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic when the fes­ti­val was can­celled, re­minds us Car­ni­val is more than just a street par­ty. As Gar­lin (Ian Al­varez) lyri­cal­ly not­ed, “You so caught up with en­joy­ment, that you don’t see the lev­el of em­ploy­ment, that coul­da’ save life when yuh think this thing woul­da’ de­stroy them … Car­ni­val is a sea that deep …” Car­ni­val is a dri­ver of em­ploy­ment, com­mu­ni­ty, cul­ture, and na­tion­al pride. It is an in­dus­try that cre­ates jobs across sec­tors, strength­ens com­mu­ni­ties through pa­n­yards and mas camps, em­pow­ers small busi­ness­es and en­tre­pre­neurs, and po­si­tions T&T glob­al­ly through its po­ten­tial con­tri­bu­tion to the Or­ange Econ­o­my.

The Or­ange Econ­o­my refers to in­dus­tries based on cre­ativ­i­ty, cul­ture, and in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty, in­clud­ing mu­sic, art, fash­ion, film, de­sign, and dig­i­tal con­tent. Glob­al­ly, it is a tril­lion-dol­lar in­dus­try that gen­er­ates jobs, in­no­va­tion, and for­eign ex­change by mon­etis­ing cul­tur­al as­sets and cre­ative tal­ent.

Glob­al ex­am­ples in­clude In­dia’s Bol­ly­wood, the US’ Hol­ly­wood, and Ja­maica’s Reg­gae and Mu­sic. In my view, if T&T de­lays in iden­ti­fy­ing and cap­tur­ing the full so­cio-eco­nom­ic val­ue of Car­ni­val, we risk miss­ing out on one of our na­tion’s great­est eco­nom­ic as­sets.

Car­ni­val: The pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty

Few na­tion­al fes­ti­vals in the world bring peo­ple to­geth­er like Car­ni­val does in T&T. Our pa­n­yards, for in­stance, are more than just mu­sic or re­hearsal spaces. Pa­n­yards can be safe havens for young peo­ple, a place for men­tor­ship and dis­ci­pline, and a hub of cre­ativ­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ty, and pride. When a com­mu­ni­ty steel­band makes it to Panora­ma fi­nals, it el­e­vates the en­tire neigh­bour­hood.

The pa­n­yard is where young mu­si­cians find pur­pose, struc­ture, and es­cape from crime and idle­ness. And yet, when Car­ni­val spend­ing is ques­tioned, the so­cial val­ue of these spaces is of­ten ig­nored. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, for every par­ty­go­er ‘win­ing’ in a fete or on the streets, there are hun­dreds of work­ers be­hind the scenes mak­ing it pos­si­ble. Car­ni­val is not just rev­el­ry—it is a so­cio-eco­nom­ic en­gine.

Car­ni­val: An eco­nom­ic life­line for some small busi­ness­es

The Car­ni­val econ­o­my is not just about big spon­sors and ma­jor cor­po­ra­tions. It sus­tains food ven­dors sell­ing from dou­bles and corn soup to high-end cater­ing at all-in­clu­sives; taxi and maxi dri­vers trans­port­ing hun­dreds night­ly; event pho­tog­ra­phers and video­g­ra­phers cap­tur­ing mo­ments; cos­tume de­sign­ers and seam­stress­es keep­ing mas alive; hair­dressers, make-up artists, nail tech­ni­cians and per­son­al styl­ists, en­sur­ing rev­ellers look their best.

For many, Car­ni­val is their biggest earn­ing pe­ri­od of the year. Car­ni­val stim­u­lates spend­ing, helps fam­i­lies meet fi­nan­cial oblig­a­tions, and en­sures eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty in oth­er­wise slow pe­ri­ods. For a lot of “small busi­ness­es,” Car­ni­val is sur­vival.

Car­ni­val a glob­al in­dus­try: The Pow­er of the Or­ange Econ­o­my

One of the biggest mis­con­cep­tions about Car­ni­val is that it is just a lo­cal event. But the truth is our Car­ni­val ex­ports cul­ture glob­al­ly. Many of our so­ca artistes and steel­bands tour the world; some lo­cal DJs have built suc­cess­ful glob­al brands around T&T’s so­ca and fete cul­ture; T&T-born cos­tume de­sign­ers now cre­ate for glob­al car­ni­vals.

These are not just en­ter­tain­ers—they are en­tre­pre­neurs who can po­ten­tial­ly con­tribute to the na­tion­al econ­o­my. Un­like many oth­er in­dus­tries in T&T, these cre­atives are net earn­ers of for­eign ex­change. Car­ni­val is al­ready a glob­al busi­ness, but we have failed to em­brace it as such.

Tap­ping in­to the Or­ange Econ­o­my: Un­lock­ing Car­ni­val’s true po­ten­tial

The Or­ange Econ­o­my is es­ti­mat­ed glob­al­ly to be worth over $2.25 tril­lion US dol­lars. T&T has the tal­ent and the rep­u­ta­tion to own a piece of this in­dus­try—but on­ly if we start treat­ing it as a se­ri­ous eco­nom­ic pil­lar. A start­ing point would be to in­vest be­yond sub­ven­tions; in­stead of just fund­ing events, we should be in­vest­ing in cre­ative in­fra­struc­ture, artist de­vel­op­ment, and dig­i­tal con­tent cre­ation. There al­so is the op­por­tu­ni­ty to sup­port artistes as en­tre­pre­neurs—of­fer tax in­cen­tives, grants, and busi­ness train­ing for cre­atives; po­si­tion Car­ni­val as an ex­port in­dus­try, so artistes can earn for­eign ex­change, pay tax­es, and build long-term ca­reers.

If we treat Car­ni­val as an eco­nom­ic as­set, it can pro­vide the coun­try with par­tial fi­nan­cial sup­port be­yond oil and gas as the coun­try builds a sus­tain­able cre­ative econ­o­my.

Car­ni­val should not be an ex­pense but an in­vest­ment

For too long, we have nar­row­ly framed Car­ni­val as a cost rather than an op­por­tu­ni­ty. Car­ni­val is po­ten­tial­ly a so­cial sta­bilis­er, keep­ing youth en­gaged and com­mu­ni­ties con­nect­ed; Car­ni­val dri­ves small busi­ness growth, sus­tain­ing many jobs; Car­ni­val is a glob­al in­dus­try, po­si­tion­ing T&T as the cul­tur­al heart­beat of an in­ter­na­tion­al move­ment—think of all the re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al car­ni­vals that have spawned off of T&T’s “Great­est show on earth”; Car­ni­val is a gate­way to the Or­ange Econ­o­my, an un­tapped tril­lion-dol­lar in­dus­try.

If we em­brace its full po­ten­tial, we can build a sus­tain­able econ­o­my that thrives on our cre­ativ­i­ty. Car­ni­val is not the prob­lem–our nar­row vi­sion and fail­ure to in­vest in it prop­er­ly is.