THIS year marks the 20th anniversary of Downtown Carnival, and organisers are hoping to make it a thrilling success. However, that possibility seems to be dwindling due to the lack of sponsorship.

“We have reached out to top organisations such as Digicel, FLOW, Cari-Med, J Wray and Nephew… just to name a few. We sent out these letters from September and we haven’t gotten any response except from Kirk Distributors who gave a favourable response,” Oneil Smith, principal of Downtown Carnival, told the Jamaica Observer.

“People are always looking forward to this event every year. Before this, there was nothing in downtown (Kingston) to unite people. Even higglers have been coming to me and asking what happen to the carnival this year, because they sell the most goods during carnival time,” Smith continued.

For this year’s celebrations, organisers are planning a party dubbed Short Shorts and Crazy Socks for February 29, and a beach fete on March 29. They hope to continue with a series of soca and dancehall events over Easter weekend (April 10 to 12); before climaxing with the street parade on April 13. All of this is expected to cost at least $25 million.

Last April, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett told the Observer that Jamaica had experienced its largest carnival turnout in its history. Hundreds of thousands of revellers turned out from all over the globe to indulge in the sun, rum and soca, which resulted in a major economic boost.

Smith said that while he understands the buzz surrounding the popular carnival bands, Downtown Carnival has earned its stripes and ought to be supported similarly.

“The people like to see Carnival gwaan. Even if they are not participating; just by standing by and looking makes everybody happy. I think a major issue, though, is that more support is given to the Carnival bands, and over the years our sponsorship just get tight. What I can say though is that Bacchanal and Ammar’s help us every year; they’ve been supporting us from we just start and showing us the ropes and so on,” he said.

Downtown Carnival started in 2000.

The principal said Downtown Carnival, in the past, has managed to pull up to 10,000 patrons and he has no doubt he could get 15,000 this year.

Smith said if he does not get the sponsorship he needs, he will have to find a back-up plan to make the street parade happen.

“Since money and sponsorship got so tight, we started to charge people $1,000 to attend the events. If I don’t get any more sponsors, I will have to try and use the money from the pre-street parade events to put it on. It wouldn’t be how I want it, but that’s all I can do,” he said.