Tonight Dimanche Gras… ‘Great Sunday’ heralds the official start to Carnival celebrations. Historically the Dimanche Gras Show was inaugurated in 1948 as a vignette in the Carnival Queen Show. It was celebrated on Carnival Sunday night under the auspices of the Carnival Committee and continues to be the premier Pre-Carnival celebration.
The theme of this year’s show is “Carnival Come Back–The Ritual,”
And tonight’s Dimanche Gras show has renewed interest with many younger names including popular singer Mical Teja competing for the first time for the coveted Calypso Monarch crown and the return of Machel Montano to the calypso stage.
The National Carnival Commission (NCC) has injected “under $2 million” to host tonight’s highly anticipated Dimanche Gras show at the Queen’s Park Savannah (QPS). NCC’s deputy chairman and artistic director Davlin Thomas promised “a fabulous, fantastic and ecstatic” five-hour-long show which is expected to kick off at 7 pm on the big stage.
Thomas said NCC also expects fierce rivalry in the Kings and Queens of Carnival contest, so they decided to pull out all the stops to get people to buy into the show, which is building momentum.
Having printed 5,000 North and Grand tickets for the big event, Thomas said they are expecting a sell-out crowd with guest performances by top artistes Nadia Batson, Patrice Roberts, Ravi B, Raymond Ramnarine, Neval Chatelal, Alison Hinds, De Voice and Skinny Fabulous to name a few.
Thomas said Mical Teja, Kurt Allen, Karene Asche, and Helon Francis are some of the hot favourites.
The Calypso Monarch champ will collect $500,000 and a Grand Vitara car. In 2022, NCC generated $1.3 billion in revenue from Carnival events.