PORT OF SPAIN Mayor Joel Martinez viewed the visit of a 1,500-passenger cruise ship charter to the city for Carnival as a vote of confidence in the safety of the nation's capital.
Speaking on Wednesday at City Hall to give the Downtown Carnival results, he however admitted to just one band participating in the J'Ouvert competition downtown.
Noting a pre-existing trend of masqueraders and spectators feeling unsafe downtown and instead revelling elsewhere, he said downtown Carnival was now safe due to police efforts to secure that area.
Martinez reckoned that overall, this had truly been "The mother of all carnivals," despite some commenting on social media that it really was the "mother-in-law of all carnivals."
This year was the first full Carnival since 2020, with the pandemic cancelling the festival in 2021 and reducing it to a limited showcase event in 2022.
"We saw the pan yards get very activated, with a lot of citizen participation. What a time we had! Panorama did give us all that exhilaration and made us feel that after two years, we are back." He said the prevalence of police and security officers made people feel safe and comfortable coming into the capital city.
Martinez saluted a national who negotiated with the Royal Caribbean cruise line to bring a cruise ship to TT, whose passengers had enjoyed the city's carnival activities.
"We are back, motivated and invigorated," he declared. Martinez applauded the efforts of councillor Clint Baptiste, Downtown Carnival chairman, and alderman Wendell Stephens, and praised the work of the police service and the city's municipal police.
However he confirmed to reporters that just one band had participated in the J'Ouvert competition in downtown Carnival, but was unfazed by this.
"A couple of years ago, a lot of the J'Ouvert bands moved away from coming downtown to Port of Spain because it was considered a very unsafe place. We had that stigma for a number of years and that's where J'Ouvert bands started to go through St Clair, Woodbrook, Newtown and so on.
"We want to welcome them back to Port of Spain's downtown Carnival. We have a very safe environment and it's okay to come downtown." Asked about just the fact of one J'Ouvert band downtown, he blamed this on people's apprehension while saying many bands paraded there later on Monday.
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