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At a time when climb­ing food prices feel like a week­ly rit­u­al and in a Car­ni­val land­scape dom­i­nat­ed by large, high-bud­get mas­quer­ade bands, one mi­ni Car­ni­val band in Bel­mont, bear­ing the name of one of T&T’s most trea­sured band­lead­ers, is chal­leng­ing the norm with a sim­ple but trans­for­ma­tive idea with its Pay What You Can “bonus” of­fer­ing.

For the band Berke­ley Car­ni­val Rev­o­lu­tion, ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty is not an ad­di­tion or a mar­ket­ing hook—it is the foun­da­tion of every­thing its does.

“It’s kind of straight­for­ward. So in my po­si­tion there are times if I have to go to a pay-what-you-can event, I could prob­a­bly be able to pay maybe up to $500. But there are times that I def­i­nite­ly can’t even af­ford to pay $5 for an event. I def­i­nite­ly un­der­stand that in these eco­nom­ic times. So while we do ask for a do­na­tion or sug­gest a do­na­tion of $150, we do un­der­stand that some peo­ple can af­ford to pay more and some peo­ple can’t af­ford to pay that ei­ther. But that should not ex­clude you from par­tic­i­pat­ing and cel­e­brat­ing our cul­ture,” said band­leader Cherisse Lau­ren Berke­ley, who has spent her en­tire 34 years im­mersed in the cul­ture.