Dancing in the Digital Domain: Mas, Media and Covid 19 in Caribbean Carnival

With the emergence of Covid-19 global pandemic in 2019, festival tourism in the Caribbean suffered a significant decline in visitor arrivals, the closure of national borders and the inevitable cancellation of many events. Throughout the Caribbean Community the entertainment sector, which is a vital component of the region’s tourism product, continues to flounder as countries struggle with insufficient supplies of vaccines, low vaccination rates and high community spread of the virus. Amidst the economic demise of tourism, some festivals have managed to display resilience by staging their events virtually. Employing the wide gamut of technological options, some event promoters capitalized on the new opportunities generated by staging virtual events to regular supporters while reaching out to new audiences in the Caribbean diaspora and beyond. This chapter critically examines the strategic use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) by event promoters in the staging of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival 2020.