Months of acrimony surrounding Manchester’s annual Caribbean carnival should have ended last weekend with the spectacular celebrations in the city’s Alexandra Park. However, the bitter row looks set to drag on, with a near certain legal challenge over the city council’s own rival Caribbean carnival, due to take place on August 14. Fireworks started when the authority put forward proposals to revamp the Manchester International Caribbean Carnival, which had been organised by a group led by community campaigner Anthony Brown for 20 years. Brown is angry with the council for trying to “hijack” the festival to boost tourism without any involvement of his group, who had spent years developing one of the city’s biggest crowd pullers. SQUABBLE Now the squabble looks set to result in the oddity of two major Caribbean carnivals in the same city – the Manchester International Caribbean Carnival took place in Alexandra Park in Moss Side on Saturday while the rival Community Carnival of Manchester is scheduled for the same venue in three weeks time. “The more the merrier,” says Wallace Patrick, chairman of the Barbados Association who is a representative of the committee staging the council-run event. But for Brown, who stood as an Independent candidate for Moss Side in the recent local elections, “it’s no carnival when the council steals the show”. He is putting together a legal challenge to the local authority under the Trade Descriptions Act for using the name Community Carnival of Manchester, which sounds similar to his organisation. Brown also takes issue with the council’s hiring consultants Ear to the Ground, whose track record of staging the Respect festival and Europride, he said, does not give it the background to run a Caribbean cultural festival. DIVISIONS He also accused the council of “divide and rule” tactics by paying consultants thousands of pounds while volunteers from the black community get nothing. But Patrick believes the community is too strong to be divided. “We stick together and look after each other. Many felt the event organised by Brown was not going anywhere and wanted a change. Brown was invited to come on board, but he declined. If they feel we can’t use the name carnival then let them take us to court.” A council spokesman said: “Manchester City Council believes there is no ownership of the word ‘carnival’, does not believe there is a case for a breach in trade descriptions, and supports a number of other ‘carnivals’ in the city. “The Caribbean Carnival of Manchester is being produced by a voluntary committee, set up after approaches to the council by members of the community, for an event they felt would more fully reflect their cultural heritage.” SOURCE: VOICE-ONLINE.NET