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For the first time in years, the Bri­an Lara Crick­et Acad­e­my (BLCA) in Tarou­ba was silent dur­ing Car­ni­val, leav­ing some res­i­dents call­ing the sea­son “bor­ing and un­event­ful.”

Pop­u­lar fetes such as Xpe­ri­ence, Out In South, and Stink n Dut­ty once drew crowds to the fa­cil­i­ty, val­ued for its high­way ac­cess, park­ing, and con­ve­nience. Last No­vem­ber, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar an­nounced a ban on fetes, cit­ing com­plaints about noise and dis­rup­tions to neigh­bour­ing com­mu­ni­ties. Of­fi­cials said the venue, built for crick­et, suf­fered dam­age from non-sport­ing events and in­curred high main­te­nance costs that fete rev­enues did not off­set.

The ban forced pro­mot­ers to find al­ter­na­tive venues for 2026, with Air Com­mit­tee can­celling its Out In South fete. The Pro­mot­ers As­so­ci­a­tion called the de­ci­sion “de­struc­tive,” and the Op­po­si­tion ques­tioned why BLCA was sin­gled out.