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With just ten days un­til mas­quer­aders take the streets, San Fer­nan­do stake­hold­ers be­lieve there is still time for ad­di­tion­al fund­ing to re­store com­pe­ti­tion and strength­en Car­ni­val in San Fer­nan­do, even as the city grap­ples with the ef­fects of a re­duced sub­ven­tion.

The re­newed push fol­lows rev­e­la­tions that Car­ni­val fund­ing had been cut, prompt­ing the San Fer­nan­do Car­ni­val Com­mit­tee to re­move com­pe­ti­tions from this year’s cel­e­bra­tions. May­or Robert Par­ris, who con­vened a me­dia con­fer­ence at San Fer­nan­do City Hall, said he re­mains hope­ful for a meet­ing with Min­is­ter of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Michelle Ben­jamin on the mat­ter.

Par­ris ex­plained that ear­li­er this month, the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) had in­di­cat­ed it would pro­vide the same $700,000 al­lo­ca­tion as in 2025. How­ev­er, when the con­fir­ma­tion let­ter was col­lect­ed this week, it stat­ed $500,000. As a re­sult, he said the com­mit­tee met with stake­hold­ers, who sug­gest­ed fore­go­ing prize mon­ey and re­quest­ing on­ly ap­pear­ance fees.