The controversy between Carnival bandleaders and the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA) seems to be a closed chapter. In the wake of the announcement of winners for this year’s Carnival, a number of bandleaders, including Ronnie Mc Intosh and Rosalind Gabriel, were disqualified and unplaced for allegedly infringing the rules of the Parade of the Bands competition. The bandleaders initiated legal action against NCBA chairman David Lopez and the NCBA.
The bandleaders had complained about the arbitrary enforcement of rules, which penalised them for having masqueraders under the age of 18, and other infractions. This year, Neal and Massy Trinidad All Stars Steel Orchestra copped the top prize with its presentation Sailors On Shore Leave At a Tropical Fiesta. Lopez said on Thursday, “As far as I am concerned, it’s a closed matter. We (NCBA) have held our prize-distribution ceremony for winners of Carnival 2014 and have already begun making plans for Carnival 2015.”
Yesterday, Mc Intosh said: “They (NCBA) hurriedly put together a prize distribution function and nothing has happened since Carnival. Legal letters were exchanged and that’s about it. We could not place an injunction on the prize distribution ceremony as our lawyers were out of the country. We have decided to leave them alone and let them play their games and have fun. Our interest now is our masqueraders who had a good time for Carnival 2014. We are launching our band in July for 2015 and our mas theme is Ah Come Back Home.
That’s where our focus is right now.” National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Allison Demas said her organisation is not involved in the legal exchanges as it is a matter between bandleaders and the NCBA, which is mandated by the NCC to run all Carnival activities. “I don’t know what has happened with the matter,” said Demas.
“The last thing I heard about it was that the NCBA held its prize-giving ceremony. The reason why the NCBA was able to hold its prize distribution so early is because the NCC gave the three special interest groups (NCBA, Pan Trinbago, Tuco) their full allocation for fiscal 2014 well in advance due to astute financial management by the CEO Michael Guyadeen and his executive team.”