Amid growing confusion about this year’s Carnival opening ceremony, the Chairman of the Festivals Commission, Elizabeth Makhoul has sought to clarify that the traditional event is not being cancelled, but rather combined with the popular T-Shirt mas’ celebration.

The decision comes after years of declining attendance at the standalone Thursday opening ceremony, which created logistical challenges, including road closures with minimal public support.

“What we’ve done is bring back the opening … and combining it with T-Shirt Mas,” Makhoul said during a recent interview. “Reason being, everybody comes out for T-Shirt Mas, and we haven’t seen the support for the opening when we’ve done it on a Thursday.”

The Commission faced criticism for disrupting traffic during poorly attended events. “We would get cuts for closing down roads and this and that. People didn’t come out and support it. The support was weakening year over year,” she said.

Addressing concerns about not introducing this year’s Carnival Queen contestants, Makhoul emphasized that extensive promotion has already occurred since their launch months ago. “The Queens did have a launch back in March or April, I believe, and they would have been featured all over social media. We’ve had the crown, so they’ve been introduced to the Queens for a few months now,” she stated.