July vs October for Carnival in Jamaica
Today, we finally got confirmation of rumors that have been swirling around the Jamaican carnival grapevine for a few weeks.
The carnival stakeholders are in agreement that a delayed carnival should take place this year. This is to allow for the bands and others, to finally build and deliver their carnival product to impatient masqueraders and to allow them a chance to collect some revenue to pay bills that have been accruing for 2 whole years.
The issue is WHEN!
Bacchanal Jamaica and Xodus have identified July as a time when they could have costumes ready and that would give masqueraders from overseas enough time to organize themselves to attend.
Xaymaca, on the other hand, is of the position that October would be better because many in the diaspora use the summer to attend deeply established carnivals in other islands including St. Lucia and Barbados. The Heroes weekend in October would be a weekend when locals are already accustomed to taking time off to party, and would remove the conflicts with other Caribbean carnivals.
The carnival stakeholders and the government will be meeting on Monday, March 21 to further discuss and decide on these important issues.
I posted today on my IG and most persons on MY page (mostly US based) preferred October.
