Question and Answer With the Band Leader

Dear Bandleader,

What do you think of the recent information uncovered by Saucy re: Pekar India supplying mas bands?

Is this information you think should be made available to masqueraders?

Do you have knowledge of this gentleman? Have you ever used/sourced materials from Pekar India?

If yes, can you confirm that Pekar India's materials superior or inferior?

Thank Much. AC

I know some of it to be accurate, and yes we all import to a certain extent, components from India and the China and U.S. and U.k.. Some bands do import complete costumes, although no band I know of imports all their costumes from abroad,To do so would be stupid.

Most of us have to go through a middle man usually out of the U.S. So whatever cost that may have been posted would not include air freight to the U.S. and clear their customs first, then an added fee for the agent then to freight forward it to Trinidad .duty,and VAT. not to mention as I have said before cost of head pieces ( which can be more expensive than the whole costume) music, security, bar, year round running cost that has to be added on. I have dabbled in importing costumes from abroad, but don't anymore. Not speaking for anyone other than myself, generally I find imports inferior to the costumes made locally. Usually To be able to order direct from India and China the quantities have to be a lot. And even though I am hear to give the point of view of the bandleaders, I can not always defend the unscrupulous ones.But like I said I don't import complete costumes. So I will leave this topic here.

Dear Bandleander,
I will like to know what is the response to the blog Trinidad Carnival Diary among the mas fraternity?

Are bandleaders,designers and others involved with Carnival paying any attention to the opinions of this one woman called "Saucy?".

Do you think the blog is a positive or negative addition to Carnival?

Thank you

Hard to say really, but I will admit that Saucy on average is pretty fair, and even though she has her favourite designers and bands, she is upfront in saying so. After all it is her blog, and I respect her diligence and investigative skills. I only started reading her blog earlier this year. one of my employees turned me on to it. I would strongly suggest bandleaders read and do their best to listen to feedback from the public. We tend to have a knee jerk reaction to criticism, we feel insulted by the negative things people can say . I am sometimes guilty of this. But I try to keep a cool head and swallow my pride and sort through the criticisms because even though some of it is bias or based in ignorance, a lot of it also makes sense, and we need to listen to masqueraders. So if bandleaders are not seeking out feedback as in for instance blogs like these, then that would be a big mistake., We don't know everything even though we like to think we do. So a dose of eye opening criticism can be just what the doctor ordered.

This is a busy week for me, so that's all for now. Hope to hear more from you all next week.