Lucian Junior Carnival Launched with Plans to Increase Youth Involvement
by Karen Rollins May 26, 2025
The Lucian Junior Carnival has been officially launched with a renewed focus on involving more young people and preserving the island’s cultural heritage.
At a recent press conference, head of the Carnival Planning Management Committee, Tamara Gibson, outlined how important it is to introduce the youth to the core elements of Carnival as future custodians of the art form.
She stated: “We have been hard at work preparing for Lucian Junior Carnival. This part of the festival opens the Carnival season. We are working with the departments of Tourism, Culture and Creative Industries, and the Ministry of Education to ensure that we can produce yet another successful event. We’re excited because this year and we have tried to make the calendar for the juniors very exciting.”
There will be five main events on the Lucian Junior Carnival calendar:
19-30 May – National Schools Tour
6 June – National Schools Calypso Competition and National Schools Soca Competition
7 June – National Schools Pan Fest
13 July – The Parade of the Bands
Coordinator of Junior Music Competitions, Jason ‘Bachelor’ Joseph, provided more details on the competitions. He said: “For the calypso competitions as usual we have 10 primary schools and 10 secondary schools competing. For the Soca competition we were only able to get eight primary schools and eight secondary schools, so they automatically went through to the final competition.”
Minister for Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture and Information, Dr Ernest Hilaire, said he was looking forward to this year’s event and some of the new elements.
“I’m excited about this year because, from all projections it will probably be our biggest yet just in terms of the sheer growth,” Dr Hilaire said. “Every year we assess how we will grow. In order to stay relevant and to meet long term goals, we cannot remain static. The National Schools Tour, for example is an exciting addition and something that is necessary when we speak of sustainability, cultural preservation, and responsible behaviour which we need to highlight as one of the four pillars.
The introduction of the National Schools Soca Competition is also exciting. Lucian Junior Carnival is the foundation for what we have, and we need to ensure that the foundation is secure in order to improve the peak quality.”
