Carnival Sunday night, specifically Dimanche Gras at the Queen’s Park Savannah, has been a continuing challenge to successive organisations and producers. Among its challenges has been the length of the production, in recent times the show lasting well beyond six hours. A new concern is the change in the rules of the National Calypso Monarch competition which mandates that finalists sing one song, as opposed to two in previous years.
The fact of the matter is that attendance at Dimanche Gras has significantly diminished through the years with two of the three basic components (mas and pan) of the national festival crowning their champions before Carnival Sunday night, leaving the crowning of the national calypso monarch as the main item on Carnival Sunday night. Patronage has shrunk so much that the North Stand is no longer used on Carnival Sunday night. This edifice was immortalised in song in Brother Mudada’s classic hit of 1978 – The North Stand.
Dimanche Gras producer for the past three years, Carl “Beaver” Henderson, thinks that Dimanche Gras is still relevant to T&T Carnival, but it requires cohesion between all of the festival’s special interest groups, including Pan Trinbago, Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation (Tuco) and the National Carnival Bands Association (NCBA). He said: “Dimanche Gras on a Carnival Sunday night is relevant primarily because of tradition—but the show has not adapted to the times.
Times and tastes have changed
“Dimanche Gras in the past was actually similar to what Champs in Concert has developed into over the years. Traditionally, the show was five to six hours long and people were cool with that, as there were no other fringe events leading up to Carnival Monday. But times—and people’s tastes—have changed. An ideal show in today’s world should last no more than two to three hours.”
Henderson said the desire to own a piece of the pie has been diminishing the essence of Dimanche Gras and Carnival. He said: “Since I did the first Dimanche Gras production, I have been asking the stakeholders of the event what this show should be—and up to today I am yet to get consensus from the supposed thinkers, planners and people involved in Carnival about how they believe this product should be. Everybody has their own idea of what Dimanche Gras should be.
“Some people say that we should return to basics, to tradition, and when I go back to that, I come up with Jaycees Carnival Queen Show of the 1950s and early sixties. That is being retrograde in today’s world.
“The three elements—mas, pan, calypso—that make up our Carnival, no longer coexist, sharing one vision. They exist as individual entities. Traditionally they had a winning formula and they must now come together and be on the same page moving forward with Carnival Sunday night and the entire Carnival product.
“Among changes is that the interest groups try to seek their own particular interests, pursuing their own agenda. Years ago, Dimanche Gras was a final for everybody, whether pan, mas or calypso, so the public came to see and enjoy that.”
Henderson believes that the production can be salvaged and returned to its former prestige. “To restore the kind of attractiveness this product had in previous years,” he said, “there is a need to harness and present all the elements of Carnival in one spectacular show.
“The ideal situation entails doing away with competition amongst the professional arts. Ideally, in today’s world, Dimanche Gras should really be about the stars of the festival all performing on one stage, on one night; no competition.”
Island People founder and entertainment specialist Derrick Lewis is also a past Dimanche Gras producer. He said: “Dimanche Gras is relevant to T&T Carnival but not in its present form. This production needs to be developed along the lines of a carnival cabaret.
“It is relevant as an iconic Carnival signal event. There is need for a signature Carnival event. Without a
crown, a king is not a king. Something is needed to crown the Carnival, and Dimanche Gras provides this.
“Ideally, Dimanche Gras should be an explosive, two-hour showcase of who and what we are artistically, as it relates to us being a ‘carnival people’.”
Less finalists, better production needed
Guardian Features Editor Franka Philip threw in her two cents’ worth on this debate by saying: “We just cannot continue to run these shows and competitions in a parochial fashion. We have to look to international standards. After all, we laud programmes like the finals of The Voice and America’s Got Talent for their production value. Rather than having more finalists, we should be reducing the numbers of qualifiers and working with a proper production team and production values to produce a top class show that can be exported and sold internationally.
“Sixteen finalists is already setting you up for a three-hour show, plus guests and other items that will make it even longer. We need to begin producing compabt shows that will continue to hold the interest of people.”
Calypsonians too bitter, divisive
Roland St George, the National King of Carnival for 2012 and 2015, and leader of We Krewe carnival band, is heartbroken by the lack of interest Dimanche Gras generates. He said: “Dimanche Gras is very relevant to T&T Carnival, and ought to be. This is an intrinsic part of our national culture and belongs to all of the special interest groups.
“Having being given the mantle to run Dimanche Gras, Tuco refused to share with the other two special groups. Dimanche Gras has lost its lustre as there is no longer any mas or pan competition in the Savannah on Carnival Sunday night. Dimanche Gras is now about calypsonians who bash everybody whom they disfavour. Look at Kaiso Fiesta in Skinner Park—if your calypso isn’t bashing some politican or political party, the artiste is booed or pelted off the stage. This kind of behaviour doesn’t lift an art form. It merely makes it a pappyshow.
“In this day and age, with so much social media, PR and spin doctors, we need to find some remedy to restore some brilliance to the Dimanche Gras production. The foreigners to our shores don’t want to hear anything about Trinidad and Tobago politics.
“When I won my two titles I paraded in front of an empty Grand Stand and North Stand. What kind of glory is that for a King of Carnival who has put in 40 years of his life, his own money, his time and creativity into T&T Carnival, contributing to my culture?”
Multiple National Calypso Monarch finalist and former monarch Sugar Aloes (Michael Osouna) is a staunch believer in Dimanche Gras and the crowning of a new national calypso monarch on Carnival Sunday night. He said: “Yes, Dimanche Gras is relevant to our Carnival because it is the source of the entire festival. That is the winding down to the season before the explosion of music and colour on Monday.
“In the early days, it was straight into J’Ouvert after Dimanche Gras, once the results were announced for pan, calypso and mas. Dimanche Gras is probably the most significant part of T&T Carnival.”
Sparrow: Life is change
Speaking from his New York residence this week, Calypso King of the World Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco) said that he was not unduly worried by the changes in the calypso competition. He said: “Nothing stays the same forever; in life there is always change. The majority rules and the majority took a decision at the meeting that was held by the calypsonians. As long as the majority of calypsonians agree to these changes, I will be there to urge them on.
“Dimanche Gras is still relevant to Carnival. We now have to see if there are any other changes that will come up at the last minute. I would like to be there to see it.”
Acclaimed music writer Nigel Campbell suggested that the Dimanche Gras package is in need of some forward thinking innovations to make the show more appealing to the public. He said: “The fall away in attendance at Dimanche Gras has to do in part with the lack of entertainment value in the production and performance. Our singers aren’t singing well, especially in live performances. Song structures are not innovative.
“Audiences have become accustomed to higher standards of entertainment based on what they are seeing on television or what they remembered from the masters in calypso, like Sparrow, Black Stalin, David Rudder and Kitchener.
”Plus, there are alterantives on Carnival Sunday night that are more entertaining to the wider public and the visitors from overseas.“
Up to press time, Henderson wasn’t informed whether he would be producing this year’s Dimanche Gras. However, he does have some ideas that he hopes will be implemented for 2017. Said Henderson: “The calypso element of Dimanche Gras has to be reduced. In the area of productiion time calypso alone occupied four hours of the show. Ideally, the calypso segment should be further reduced to last no more than two hours and leave room for mas and pan for another 90 mins maximum. That is the ideal sitiuation but change does not come overnight and one needs time for change.”
