CARNIVAL CALABAR 2019: RECCE/ROUTE MAPPING FOR FIRST DRY RUN TAKES PLACE
Ahead of the 2019 Carnival Calabar first official Dry Run scheduled for Sunday, October 20, 2019, a team of joint-stakeholders went on a recce of the approved routes for the event on Saturday, October 19, 2019.
The team comprised of members of the Carnival Commission, the International Carnival Consultant, some band leaders, security agencies, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Department of Public Transportation (DOPT) which has been given sole mandate to manage all the carnival routes; the Fire Service, and the media among others.
Chairman of the Cross River State Carnival Commission, Mr Gabe Onah who spoke alongside the Senior Special Adviser (Governors Office & Event Management), Hon. Ken Aklah stated that the purpose of the inspection was to establish in the minds of all the stakeholders, the consciousness of the new thinking of the Governor on Carnival Calabar 2019.
“The desire of His Excellency the Governor is to create new excitement and bring something new because as we break new grounds our competitors want to get to where we are.
“This is therefore a combine pre-route recce ahead of dry run tomorrow October 20, 2019 and we are doing this jointly because we want to introduce new things. The recce is to estimate how long it will take despite dancing and stopping on the street to calibrate on time spent which is essential for the carnival, the participants and the spectators.”
Continuing, Onah who sued for cooperation of all the stakeholders said there are newly introduced performance points around the traditional five adjudication points on the twelve kilometre carnival routes.
The Chairman informed that the Governor introduced these new performance points to bring more excitement on the roads in other to engage both the tourists and the spectators who in the past often had long waiting periods before the band procession arrived.
“Performance point one is LG office by Mary Slessor, while point two is from Mary Slessor to Marian by Barrack Road junction. Performance point three is at Governors Boot, point four is at Apples Fast food on Marian, while point five is at Channelview Hotels.
“DOPT has the sole right to man all the carnival routes. Some of these routes will be permanently locked down.” Mr. Onah declared.
The recce/inspection team had in attendance, representatives of the Carnival media partners, such as DStv, AIT, NTA, TVC and Aljazeera.
