PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC) — Whenever it is Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago there must be some form of controversy, and this time the Archbishop of Port of Spain, Jason Gordon, is urging members of the public to make their positions known after one of the popular masquerade bands decided to hand out an adult sex toy in the Carnival goodie bags given to women masqueraders.

The archbishop, speaking at a daily service at the Archbishop’s Chapel on Monday, said the Tribe Carnival Band has pushed the envelope too much and that Carnival has reached a level of “hedonism”.

He said citizens may have to call on the Government to intervene.

The Roman Catholic Church leader said that two years ago when he wrote the book Rekindling our Carnival Rhythms, tracing the history of carnival from before slavery, it reflected the social history of the two-island republic.

“Whereas I started to write a rant about what was happening, I realised there were so many beautiful pieces of Carnival — you know, the Canboulay Riots, the Dimanche Gras show, the pan, the Moko Jumbies. There are so many amazing things about Carnival, so many amazing things.”

But Archbishop Gordon said that last year he wrote another book in which he selected seven songs from the 2025 Carnival to show how they tell a story of nation-building, unlike anything he said he had seen before in his life.

But he said said if there is a covenant of love between the people and the city, then society must also push back against Carnival when it is going astray.

“The only times, actually, [when] Carnival evolved into more artistic forms is when it got pushed back. For many years, two or three decades now, Carnival has been encroaching, encroaching, encroaching. Not all of it — I want to be real clear — I’m talking about Carnival Monday and Tuesday, and I am talking about the fete industry, and I am talking about an industry.

“It is owned by one or two people, and most of our big bands that are pushing hard in the wrong direction are owned by one or two people. This is business.”

The archbishop said this year that Tribe Carnival has gone too far, saying, “Just as I have asked the Government to regulate social media for the sake of our children, if Tribe cannot pull back on its own, I think the Government would have to regulate it.”