With just $700,000 in State fund­ing to stage Car­ni­val in the south­ern city, the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion is tight­en­ing its belt, scal­ing back cel­e­bra­tions and can­celling the for­mal launch this year.

San Fer­nan­do May­or Robert Par­ris told Guardian Me­dia that while spend­ing is be­ing reined in, ef­forts are un­der­way to pre­serve the over­all qual­i­ty of the fes­ti­val.

“There will be no launch,” Par­ris said, ex­plain­ing that the com­mit­tee has tak­en guid­ance from the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) and ac­cept­ed that a launch is un­ten­able with­out the nec­es­sary fund­ing.