DOES THE Government want to run a soca monarch competition, to support the return of the International Soca Monarch franchise, or to encourage private sector production of a new event to take its place on the Carnival calendar?
NCC chairman Winston "Gypsy" Peters committed on July 10 to a return of the event to the Carnival calendar, following a call by Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Randall Mitchell for the return of the Soca Monarch competition in April.
The Tourism and Culture Ministry invited expressions of interest on July 30 for parties interested in managing all aspects of a soca competition, suggesting that action will follow.
Nothing's been heard from TUCO about this new development. Still, it appears to have its administrative hands full just maintaining calypso tents during the season and staging the Dimanche Gras show.
A soca competition staged at a level that would stoke national interest among a youth audience isn't part of TUCO's skill set, yet.
The International Soca Monarch competition was staged as a privately owned event from 1993 to 2020 by Caribbean Prestige Foundation.
The event was an all-star extravaganza that attracted the best artistes from TT, then the wider Caribbean at its peak, a competition that drew thousands to view live performances of each year’s best party music.
A decade into the new century, the event was already crippled by the loss of several top performers who hosted their own events or performed the party circuit.
With Carnival suspended in 2021 and 2022 under covid restrictions, the show struggled. The Monarch, an unofficial competition, was staged without an audience and pre-recorded in 2021, and after the early announcement of a 2023 edition, Prestige cancelled the event.
Mr Mitchell's call was welcomed by fete promoters and soca artistes but as Iwer George, the last winner of a formally staged Soca Monarch competition, noted, there is a need to take the event back to its roots to reboot its engagement with the public.
Promoter Jerome Precilla argued that any new event should be planned as self-sufficient and not depend on government funding for its continuance.
Both are sensible suggestions, but is anyone in government capable of evaluating any future competition plan based on those criteria?
Consider the beggar's banquet that the State's involvement has made of steelband and calypso competitions.
The importance of a signature event for soca artistes is clear, even to St Lucia's Jazz & Arts Festival chairman Thaddeus Antoine who described its absence as "damaging" to the Carnival product.
Shrinking audiences suggested that the show wasn't reaching its target market effectively and beyond providing a populist stage, it did little to cultivate serious ambitions for soca as an art form.
Any new show will need a producer, but what of the artistes who are expected to participate in this project and advance the development of soca?
Their voices should be heard.
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