Statement 13th May

The St Pauls Carnival planning team would like to apologise for the artistic error of judgement in endorsing a t-shirt design from a local designer on our social platforms yesterday.

We have withdrawn the social media messages and Alright Mate has also withdrawn his messages and the t-shirt from sale.

Alright Mate generously offered to share some of the proceeds from the sale of his unofficial St Pauls Carnival-themed t-shirt in good faith. 

We have today investigated the process taken in reviewing the design and the original endorsement was agreed by a former member of staff who is no longer part of the organisation. While we have robust processes in place for reviewing all collaborations, it is clear that on this occasion we fell far short. We will be reviewing our internal approval processes to make sure we do not make the same mistake in future. 

We would like to acknowledge that Alright Mate’s offer to support Carnival was well intentioned. We sincerely apologise to everyone involved and to the wider community for the offence this has caused.

Understandably, some members of the community have raised concerns over the design, despite the intended peaceful message. We represent the coming together, unity and the celebration of African-Caribbean culture and strongly oppose anything with links to violence and the endangering of lives.  

We also acknowledge Inkie’s comments regarding the similarities between his original design for the Carnival in 2018 and the t-shirt produced by Alright Mate and we apologise to Inkie for any offence caused. Alright Mate has requested to engage with Inkie to explain his creative process, something we also welcome.

We will now continue to focus on delivering this year’s full carnival programme and look forward to engaging positively with everyone as we move forward.