Minister Fonseca Forms Subcommittee to Improve Carnival Road March

Chairman of the National Celebration Commission, Minister Francis Fonseca, says that a subcommittee will be formed to discuss improvements to the carnival road march. This year’s event was marred by complaints regarding several aspects of the carnival including security, its route, its timing, and the scattered alcohol-fueled brawls. Fonseca says that changes need to be made to ensure next year’s event goes off without a hitch. 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education: “No I think the Carnival Road march is here to stay but certainly I think we have to review and re-evaluate the way we do it. You know this year there were some complications because the Ministry of Infrastructure had advised that they couldn’t use the Belcan Bridge. So I think, you know, we’ve discussed that already and I think we we’re going to have a special subcommittee of the National Celebrations Commission deal specifically with Carnival and work along with the Carnival Association. So we’ll establish that and we’ll bring in some other stakeholders and voices who have expressed ideas who have good recommendations and ideas. So I think we can resolve some of these issues. The police have a difficult, difficult job when you think about the carnival, I saw it there on Baymen people were sitting there for literally four hours drinking. That’s the nature of these things, whether you like it or not. So by the time the carnival rolls around Baymen you have a lot of people who are hyped to be diplomatic, right? Real hyped. So I don’t envy the police. That’s a difficult task to deal with. They want to be balanced. They want people to celebrate and enjoy the carnival but at the same time we can’t allow a few individuals to destroy the beauty and spirit and energy of carnival for everybody else. So we’re going to take a very hard look. The police are a part of the commission. The BDF, everybody’s a part of the commission. We’re going to work with them to make sure that we address these issues that arose this year.”

Earlier this week, our newsroom spoke with the President of the Belize Carnival Association, Patrick Thompson, who also echoed Minister Fonseca’s sentiments.