Chair­man of the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC), Pe­ter Kan­hai, says he was not per­turbed af­ter be­ing booed by sec­tions of the crowd dur­ing the launch of the John Cu­pid Car­ni­val Vil­lage on Fri­day, stress­ing that dif­fer­ing views were ex­pect­ed from time to time. He said the com­mis­sion re­mains com­mit­ted to im­prov­ing the Car­ni­val ex­pe­ri­ence.

“Good evening... You would no­tice right off the bat that we are do­ing things dif­fer­ent­ly this year. For starters, we have moved the vil­lage to this space. From along the drag to a new home near the North Stand, which you will see is more con­ve­nient, more ac­ces­si­ble, more spa­cious than be­fore,” said Kan­hai while giv­ing wel­come re­marks at the launch of the John Cu­pid Car­ni­val Vil­lage at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah to pa­trons on Fri­day. It was that com­ment that drew the ire of some who be­gan to boo loud­ly, with oth­ers even ges­tic­u­lat­ing for him to go.

The Fla­va Vil­lage, which was launched on Thurs­day evening to ac­com­mo­date food ven­dors, has tak­en over the space tra­di­tion­al­ly oc­cu­pied by the John Cu­pid Car­ni­val Vil­lage. The Car­ni­val Vil­lage has been placed in the area known as the Pad­dock. The move has drawn mixed re­ac­tions from pa­trons to both ven­tures.