The all new online entertainment platform CHRENDING is now official, following its launch at the Cascadia Hotel, St Ann’s on Tuesday.
The brainchild of entertainer Fayann Lyons-Alvarez, it is an online platform designed to facilitate and promote Caribbean culture and it’s creatives.
Lyons-Alvarez said “Chrending, which is also a content on demand and live streaming platform will allow for concert performances whether in the long or short format.”
“It’s a platform that will be able to keep creatives in contact and working and doing the things that they love to do.”
Chrending will showcase everything from calyspo, rapso, pan, chutney, to comedy, food, and fashion and it will all take place in phases.
The first phase of Chrending is the launch of the social media platforms, which will be used to give the public insight into what creatives are doing and to promote artistes in the absence of Carnival fetes and events. The second phase will be the launch of the website on December 28 and the third phase, the launch of the app on January 15.
She said the creative and Entertainment industry has been affected very badly by the current covid-19 pandemic and many of the persons, suppliers and businesses that participate and provide support services events normally generated by the cultural event called Carnival, are under immense pressure trying to individually and collectively, find a space online that can be utilized, monetized and also offer proper global exposure with a solid and creatively designed platform structure they can access.
Lyons-Alvarez told us that prior to the launch she began by networking with a couple of the artists, deejays, producers, songwriters and industry stakeholder and came up with a concept that is not exclusive to locals, but it allows for the networking of all the different countries that we would normally frequent.
She contacted Paul Richards and a couple of other people and “we sat down and had a discussion and they all expressed that it was a beautiful idea as other people are going to benefit from it.”
“We pulled in the Gillette Group of Companies, and Chrending took root from there.
The Gillette Group will supply their media, website and app building expertise to the project.
She said “We’ve spent years building this grand festival into what it is and we can’t just turn our backs on it, while the rest of the world is finding ways to be creative.
“We’ve seen all these various awards shows taking place and they have been very successful, so I don’t think we should limit ourselves to just being wine and jam people on the streets.”
She said creatives from the other islands are very excited to come on board and “We will be working with them in the future to help their own creative industry stay alive and viable and pool all the energies and resources together and make something that the Caribbean as a whole can come together and really benefit from.”
“We’ve been working on this platform from the minute we heard of lockdown and it is important for us to show people that Carnival is way more than what it has become, we just need an outlet and that is what Chrending is aiming to provide.
They are now in conversation with the Copyright Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (COTT) to ensure copyright issues are addressed for the virtual space.
Chrending can be found on the following platforms:
https://www.facebook.com/OnChrending-102437798378560
https://instagram.com/onchrending?igshid=1w5l4zebbgj2n
https://www.snapchat.com/add/onchrending
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw9EodT6pjTlakgGdOZ5mZg
https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSp1LqVF/
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