Chairman of the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC), Ricardo “Ricky” Adams, warned on Wednesday against reducing Vincymas, St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ premier festival, to a purely commercial series of fetes, detached from its cultural foundations.
He argued that while premium events have their place, a carnival accessible only through high-priced parties risks excluding ordinary Vincentians and weakening the cultural core the region itself created.
“Sadly, some people think that the way carnival should be going is that we should reduce it to a festival of fetes, and the people who have the biggest and the most fetes are the ones who [are] going to be enjoying the carnival,” Adams said at the last scheduled press conference before the final 10 days of the festival on June 26.
“… we have to remember not everybody can afford three and $400 a night to go into an all-inclusive event, and if we don’t base it on some cultural aspect, then we will be competing merely on a festival and music, and on a fete and music aspect of it,” he said.
Adams stressed that the southern Caribbean remains the cradle of key carnival art forms.
“The majority of people who play pan and who’re tuning pans and arranging pans are from the southern Caribbean or descendants of people from the southern Caribbean,” he said.
“The majority of the mas bands that are being done in all of the markets that are consumers of carnival … are being done by people from the southern Caribbean or descendants of people from the southern Caribbean. The music that is out there, the soca music, if you look at it carefully, is generated in the southern Caribbean,” Adams argued.
Without conscious protection and investment, he warned, local creators could lose control of their own festival.
“If we don’t protect that aspect of our culture, we will then become consumers of music, of creativity, of pan that is created elsewhere, and we just become consumers who pay to enjoy it,” he said.
Adams said Vincymas 2026 is entering its final phase of preparation with a packed calendar, new cultural and commercial initiatives, and a renewed push to keep the festival rooted in Vincentian creativity even as artificial intelligence (AI) enters the music space.
Addressing what he described as the final planned press conference for the commencement of Vincymas 2026, [Adams said on Wednesday that the 10-day festival, branded “The Great Escape”, is intended to deliver a safe, culturally grounded, and economically impactful product for St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and the wider diaspora.
He noted that while Vincymas has already been launched and the rural carnival segment is underway, Wednesday’s engagement was to “give you an operational update as to where we are on the Vincy Mas programme”.
From Fantastic Friday to Mardi Gras
Adams walked the media and stakeholders through the remaining calendar of events, emphasising both youth involvement and broad public access.
He said the festival recently completed rural events and is now moving into a series of activations, starting at Argyle International Airport (AIA) on Sunday.
“In the last year, we started doing a full activation at the Argyle International Airport, where we use cultural performances, we use merchandising, and we use our people to welcome visitors to Vincymas. … we’re going to continue that this year,” he said [0:21:40].
The CDC will also mount a departure activation branded “Promise to come back”, adding that the CDC would “be collecting some data … so we can better understand what you liked, what you didn’t like, what you would like to see more of, what you would like to see less of, and tailor our offering to what our people really want to enjoy”.
Among the major events he highlighted was Fantastic Friday – Calypso Semifinals on June 26.
Junior Festival Weekend – Carnival, Panorama, and Calypso/Soca
- Saturday, June 27 – Junior Carnival
- Sunday, June 28 – Junior Panorama
- Tuesday, June 30 – Junior Calypso and Soca
Adams said Victoria Park will be turned into a “mini Coney Island” during this period.
Flavours of Vincy Mas Food Village
From Wednesday, July 1 to Wednesday, July 8, the Flavours of Vincy Mas Food Village will operate at the E.T. Joshua Tarmac:
Steel & Glitter and Evo – A Night in the Clouds, on July 2, bringing together sections of the bands and the senior Panorama.
On Friday, July 3, the signature all-white event Evo – A Night in the Clouds returns.
The Soca Monarch competition takes place on July 4, with what Adams called “the big bad Soca Monarch” .
He disclosed that interest and participation were high, with179 entries for preliminary judging at the Soca Monarch level.
“We cut it down to 44 in the semifinals; we’ve brought it down to 12 and 13 in the finals, and there’s still so much good music out there,” he said.
To respond to that enthusiasm, CDC has introduced a “Wild Card” slot, “where the general public can pick any artist that they want to see on the show”.
There were 3,700 votes in the first 24 hours of the competition.
“… so people are really buying into the concept,” Adams said, describing it as giving young people the chance “to pick who I really want to see on stage, apart from those who the judges have also selected”.
On Sunday, July 5, Demanche Gras will feature kings and queens of the bands alongside the Calypso finalists [0:28:08].
On Monday, July 6, J’ouvert and Monday Jam will take over Kingstown’s streets. Adams noted a resurgence of traditional forms:
He highlighted efforts by cultural advocates to revive the Monkey Band and the Boosy Back:
The grand finale, Mardi Gras, will again take the spectacle of mas to the streets on Carnival Tuesday.
