Basseterre, St. Kitts, July 23, 2020 (ZIZ News): As the on-going Covid-19 pandemic continues to cast uncertainty surrounding the hosting of public events, officials from the St. Kitts and Nevis National Carnival Committee and the entertainment industry discussed what carnival celebrations in the federation may look like going forward in a panel discussion on Wednesday.
The panel consisted of Chair of the SKN National Carnival Committee, Shannon Hawley, Former Carnival Committee Chair, Clement “Monarch” Ogarro, CEO of Impel Marketing, Raphael Rodney and Patrice Harris who moderated the discussion.
The panelists took turns dissecting topics such as the promotion of the SKN Carnival product to other countries, the economic impact from hosting events, preserving the traditional elements of carnival and how the carnival committee and event promoters can host events during a pandemic.
Rodney suggested various ways in which the committee can host public carnival events such as the National Carnival Queen and Talented Teen pageants while observing the Covid-19 safety protocols.
“Let’s say that the NEOC allows us to do small numbers, we may be able to get away with larger numbers if the event is a sit down event like for Miss St. Kitts and Talented Teen, we put the chairs a certain distance away from one another, temperature guns when you coming in, sanitization the whole 9 yard and the police force is there to make sure we have a certain level of social distancing, if you have to wear your mask.”
As it relates to hosting carnival events virtually, Hawley said that the committee can learn from other countries who have used virtual media to host their carnival events.
“In Antigua there is actually going to be a soca monarch virtual and the participants will submit any song they have participated in before and then the finals will be based on songs and I thought that was a great idea as well so what we are seeing in other islands, the same way we are seeing other islands are opening and learning from their mistakes, I think that we can learn from other islands who would have had their carnivals and would have been preparing to host their carnivals over the next few weeks and in terms of what they’re doing and what their allowing and how it goes over when the festivities have been completed,” She said.
She also said that they will rely on members of the National Emergency Operations Center to determine the way forward as it relates to the planning and hosting of these events when the time comes.