The Band Leader has responded to your comments:
Dear Saucy,
Before I move on to the other questions I'd like to reply to the comments made about the no downtown issue.
Dear all
Thanks for your comments. And after reading them you have changed my mind. I guess having the downtown venue kept as an alternative but not compulsive competition seems harmless. Now remember my suggested route was based on the logistics of moving large numbers of people as easily as possible, with safety and the minimization of congestion my main issue. I am still of the opinion that carnival has outgrown downtown, and maybe it should be left to the individual band leaders to make there decision based on the consensus of their masqueraders.
I am proud of our carnival history, and over the years I have seen first hand the changes in carnival . As I got older I found it harder to accept these changes, but whether I liked it or not change came. You see Carnival is a living spectacle, and like all living things it will grow, move and change. It is good to remember our history, to tell the stories of carnival years gone by, and try our best to hold on to it. But this must be done via incentive (ie: better prize money for vintage mas and performances) we can not force people to play mas the way we want.
Downtown, like I said before is a logistical problem, and no amount of tradition, nor good sentiment will solve it. Unless the government is willing to widen downtown streets, or allow bands to access the highway(both of which are highly unlikely) our downtown venue so steeped in history, will someday soon, be marginalized.
I am sorry that some of you think that I have not answered the question of left over costumes appropriately. I think I may need further explanation of what exactly what the issue is. It is not my intention to avoid any topic, and as soon as one of you good people explain it, I'll be more than glad to answer again.
The answers to the rest of your questions are coming soon, I just wanted to let you guys read this response before posting the rest!
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4 comments:
Thank you Bandleader for taking the time to interact with us and thank you Saucy for providing this forum. Much appreciated.
Many thanks to the Bandleader for providing such honest and informative responses to our questions.
Regarding the leftover costume issue, I think what people actually want to know is why bands are selling leftover costumes in the first place. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I would imagine it's because there is nothing else to do with them but sell them, rather than absorb the loss of having unsold surplus costumes. I understand that while mas' is often a labour of love, it is also a business, and the bandleaders need to be able to minimize their losses.
However, if this is indeed the case, the bigger question is "Why do bands have SO many leftover costumes?" I can understand a handful of pieces going unsold here and there, but if a band claims to be 'sold out', how can they possibly have enough leftover costumes to outfit a whole other Carnival band?? Or are bandleaders buying/making extra costumes with the intention of selling them at multiple Carnivals in the first place?
Well put squeezle... and to add to that:
If they are indeed making extra costumes with the intention of selling them, then it seems to me that these extras are being borne on the backs (i mean pockets) of the masqueraders in Trinidad's carnival and that these 'surplus' costumes are possibly being sold for 100% profit !!
That almost seems immoral to me... Maybe i just dont have a business head :-S
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