Feb. 11, 2009 -- Carnival 2009 has new fiscal challenges, a J'ouvert survival kit for visitors, two ladies taking top naming honors of the Village and the Cultural Fair, and an abbreviated new theme: "Echoes Through Time."
Carnival Committee Chairman Kenneth Blake and Executive Director Caswil Callender announced this year's festivities Wednesday morning during a press conference at Palms Court Harbor View Hotel. The two were upbeat in the face of swelling costs.
This year's unprecedented national financial crisis is taking its toll on the Virgin Islands, Callender said. But he reminded folks that people in the territory have a unique bond, and he urged the community -- specifically sponsors -- to rise to the occasion.
"We have each other," Callender said.
He also echoed the administration's campaign theme.

"It's together we must," Callender said. "No one knows the impact of this crisis, but it helps to bond. We are one of the top 10 Carnivals in the world. Travelers will come, and we have to give them what they would expect."
Aside from financial challenges, he said, other Carnivals in the region compete for tourist dollars: "Trinidad is thinking about moving their Carnival to April, and, in the future, Cuba may open to American visitors."
Carnival 2008 figures in the territory show a total of $82,000 from sponsors, Callender said.
"We are losing sponsorship, and costs rise each year," he said. Eight or so years ago, sponsorship pulled in almost three times as much money -- $210,000. It's a perennial problem, he said, made more acute this in this year's troubled economy.
The government will take in about $65 million from this year's Carnival, including gross-receipts taxes from local merchants who benefit hugely from the event, Callender said. The government appropriated $550,000 to the committee this year -- $300,000 from the Tourism Revolving Fund and $250,000 from the General Fund, he said.
"We had $600,000 last year," Callender said. "So that means we have to work even harder to make up that $50,000."
Extra private security alone costs $20,000, he said, and it's money well-spent: Last year was almost incident-free.
"We hope to again augment our force with the V.I. National Guard as we did last year," said V.I. Police Sgt. Barrington Thomas Sr., committee police coordinator.
Among people who will make 2009 special are Rosalind "Chummy" Titley, for whom the village is named, and Marie David, whose name will greet folks to the cultural fair in Emancipation Garden.
Titley has manned Chummy's Culinary Kitchen in the village for years. Her nickname dates to her childhood: "I was a bit chubby, but they called me 'Chummy.'"
Diana Brown, special events director for the Tourism Department, described the J'ouvert survival kit, which will be offered in a four-night hotel stay promotion, advertised in Atlanta, New York, Miami and throughout the Caribbean.
It includes a Carnival T-shirt, a towel to wave, a tumbler to drink from, a disposable camera, and -- essential to any jump-up -- a whistle. The promotion also includes a $50-per-person gift certificate. Participating hotels will be announced soon, Brown said.
Freshman Sen. Wayne James, a seasoned historian, spoke briefly, putting the celebration in historical perspective.
"Carnival didn't really start in 1952," he said. "It started from the day we came off the slave ships. It's a tradition of masquerade from Africa. It's part of who we are, because it's a part of who we were."
Enslaved people would observe that tradition, some dressing as the queens they once were, some mocking the plantation owners.
"It's a release of what we fought for," James said.
This year's poster features Tamika Archer with the University of the Virgin Islands troupe.
This year's celebration starts April 12, with the Prince and Princess Selection Show at 5 p.m. in Lionel Roberts Stadium. Carnival concludes May 2, with 9 p.m. fireworks by Grucci in honor of President Barack Obama and a Last Lap at the village from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
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