St Pauls Carnival CIC announces board changes and plans for 2021

Bristol’s iconic celebration of African-Caribbean culture, St Pauls Carnival, announces the appointment of two new high-profile non-executive directors.

Sandra Meadows MBE, CEO of Voscur, has been appointed to the board and will oversee governance and funding, alongside Adam Tutton, CEO of Bristol Rovers Community Trust whose focus will be business development.

They take up their non-executive positions as Marti Burgess steps down from her role as chair. Current Carnival vice chair, councillor Carole Johnson will take up the post as interim chair going into 2021.

Marti was instrumental in bringing St Pauls Carnival back to the city in 2018 after a three-year hiatus. Fellow board member Yvonne Ramarsan will also step down after her tenure alongside Marti.

These leadership changes come following a year of challenge for the organisation. In March this year the team was forced to cancel the 2020 celebration, which traditionally always takes place on the first Saturday of July, alongside so many other public events, due to the impact of the pandemic.

However, determined not to let the Covid crisis dampen its spirits the dedicated team went on the deliver ‘Spirit Up! United at Home’ - a digital offering which include a two week online cultural programme in June and July.

Heralded as an enormous success in attracting an extended worldwide audience while continuing engagement locally, the online event was the first Carnival in the UK to deliver a live stream event, held on its traditional carnival day.

This was followed in October, with the carnival team delivering a programme of events. Talks, spoken word and online content celebrated the Ketch A Fyah Black History Month season, inspired by events in the city, sparked by the felling of the Colston statue earlier this year.

The new team is now focused on plans for 2021. It is unclear whether a physical event will be possible at this point. Planning would need to be underway already for such a large-scale public event and the board is currently working with Bristol City Council and its city and community partners to assess viability for an event.

However, without doubt, the carnival team will be offering a celebration in some format on the traditional carnival day on Saturday, 3 July 2021.

The organisation has also been reflecting on the past year and how the pandemic has impacted on the arts and culture sector. Although the positive news of COVID-19 vaccines has been announced in the past few weeks, it is still very unclear how large, scale open access events might take place in 2021. For St Pauls Carnival, the key priorities are to ensure that the organisaton is secure and limit any financial risks in an uncertain environment.

Commenting on the changes and new direction for St Pauls Carnival, executive director LaToyah McAllister-Jones says:

“We’re delighted to welcome Sandra and Adam to the board, their combined experience will be invaluable to the wider organisation and we’re all focused on the shared objective to ensure the sustainability of an organisation which is so important to the community and surrounding areas of St Pauls.

“The work the new board did to bring carnival back in the last few years has been phenomenal. We would like to thank all past non-executive directors who played an important part in Carnival’s return - Denis Lindsay, Ian Irvine, Beresford Lee, Sally Cordwell and Charmaine Lawrence.

“Marti’s leadership of the organisaton has been instrumental in getting us to where we are today and we all owe her immense gratitude for her hard work and belief in carnival.

“She has always ensured we are focused and encouraged consistent engagement with the community and the whole city to secure the legacy of this iconic event. We wish Marti, and Yvonne, well in their future endeavours though they will always remain part of the Carnival family!”

Councillor Carole Johnson, interim chair of St Pauls Carnival CIC says: “We’re feeling very positive going into 2021. We have a strong board team in place with some fresh ideas and plenty of energy and we will continue to build on the hard work that has been undertaken in the last three years.”