(Trinidad Express) Chutney Soca Monarch is back on, says Southex chief executive officer George Singh.
His decision follows a last-minute offer by Finance Minister Colm Imbert of TT$1 million towards hosting the annual Carnival event.
In a text message to the Express yesterday, Singh announced that the show will go on.
He said, “We would like to thank the Minister of Finance and by extension the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for their quick action yesterday.”
Singh said, however, the production would be scaled back. “But we are happy to know that chutney soca will still play an integral part on the culture of Carnival and of Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.
On Thursday, Singh announced that the NLCB 2018 Chutney Soca Monarch would be cancelled due to low funding by the Government.
He said funding for the event was reduced by 90 per cent and it would be difficult to host the show without Government assistance.
Singh said he found it suspicious that Government decided to pull out of the show one day before the launch at the Queens Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.
A few hours later, Imbert called a press conference to address the issue. He said the Chutney Soca Monarch would now be offered $1 million. In 2017 Southex had received $1.5 million in sponsorship from the NLCB.