by Dominique Lescott
St. Kitts Nevis (WINN): Just days before the first in-person 50th-anniversary celebrations for the St. Kitts and Nevis National Carnival and the Task Force has not provided the Carnival Committee with protocols surrounding the live events, since the proposal was sent in September 2021.
Last year, the Carnival Committee took the decision to abandon any road activities and other traditional events, in favour of moving towards a virtual platform due to the threat posed by COVID-19.
However, the Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Cameron Wilkinson last month said he believes “we can have a significant number of vaccinated persons coming together,” adding that “there will be a lower risk of viral transmission.”.
The WINN news team asked Shannon Hawley, the chair of the Carnival Committee, about communication with the Task Force regarding in-person events. Hawley informed us that, “…We’ve received verbal approval to host events. However, as it relates to protocols surrounding the live events, we have not been issued with any formal protocols as yet. So we do not know if the protocols we have in place are for vaccinated only, for a mixed crowd etc. We do not know what the hold up is actually”.
The Calypso Tent Series started virtually on Saturday 13 November, with the last event of the series being hosted both virtually and in-person. WINN asked what the impact of the delays in communication from the Task Force. Hawley responded, “We are proceeding with our planning. We have our first live event this Saturday 20th [November 2021] in the form of a Calypso Tent. However, we hope to receive instructions and directions from the Task Force in short order because we, in turn, are unable to guide or advise our stakeholders as to the next steps with relation to their participation in carnival”.
Hawley added, “The Task Force has approved our proposals for specific events but have not given us the guidelines under which to host [the] event”. The Carnival Committee submitted proposals at the beginning of September 2021.
