INTERIM president of the Tobago October Carnival Association (TOCA) Dexter Sandy says the majority of its members are in favour of the move to shift all major activities to the capital city, Scarborough.

'As a group, we deliberated about it and the majority of the association's members said that they were in agreement with the shift to centralising it in Scarborough,' he told Newsday on Tuesday.

Sandy, leader of Iconic Mas, said last year's J'Ouvert in Crown Point was a logistical nightmare for revellers, spectators and others heading to their workplaces.

'There was a bottleneck, and based on that logistic failure last year, even the police and all echoed it in saying that, after the J'ouvert was finished, there was gridlock of traffic and other things that occurred in the space. They said that based on the numbers of persons in that space, it was just too much.'

He said Scarborough offers several options for parking as well as entry and exit points.

'You could have the festival centralised, whether it is on the waterfront area and the port and market not literally shut down. There are different advantages with Scarborough.

'So we are saying, it is the second year, let's try something new and see how it works. If it doesn't work, then in the third year we can revert. But we as an association are in support of centralising of all the activities in Scarborough for the carnival weekend.'

TOCA issued a statement on Monday outlining its mission and objectives.

Its mission is to 'elevate the look and feel of the carnival product in the Tobago space by working together with all mas practitioners, enthusiasts and stakeholders to create another destination carnival to be reckoned with. '

TOCA said it is also committed to 'nurturing a sense of togetherness and belonging among our members, while working towards another driving force with socio-economic benefits for our space.

'We firmly believe that our collective efforts and working together with the THA we can definitely make a significant impact in the mas Industry.'

Sandy said TOCA is made up of mas bandleaders participating specifically in the October carnival.

'It is not as the name may imply. Somebody may look at the name and think it will cover the entire carnival. Right now, the composition of the group is the mas bandleaders.'

At present, he said, there are about 15 mas bands registered with the group, 'but it is not to replace the other bandleaders' groups that function for the national Carnival.'

Sandy said members have been brainstorming on ways to improve the carnival experience.

'We have different concepts and ideas as to how the carnival should be shaped and what we decided to do, after last year's experience, we decided to form an association where we could see what made sense, what did not make sense, and with that will, as a collective group, we could now present to (Tobago) Festivals Commission and say, as a mas band, this is what we are looking at.'

For example, he recalled the fiasco that resulted from a shortening of th