By Shamar Blunt
Several event planners and promoters have called for an urgent meeting with Government if there is to be any real restart to the island’s nightlife as the Crop Over season nears.
Members of the Barbados Association of Event Professionals and the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries made the call in an online forum held Thursday night by industry professionals to discuss the current impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the entertainment industry.
Dwayne Best, president of the Barbados Association of Event Professionals, told his members that any formal restart of the entertainment industry needed to include the consultation of event promoters and planners who he said are responsible for the majority of the biggest branded events, including during the Crop Over season.
But while crediting the promoters with changing the face of the island’s main festival with a series of commercial fetes that have become brand name fixtures, he declared most of the festival’s official events failures.
Best said: “Crop Over as it right now has changed tremendously from what it was 10 to 15 years ago; that massive change has been brought about by the private promoters. Crop Over is now based on what the private promoters do, and when people come in to Barbados for events, they come for specific events because those brands have been built over the years.
“So let us look at BLISS, let us look at Elevate, Roast, all of these brands have been built over the years, and people who come into the country to party for Crop Over, buy tickets for these events and bring revenue into the country.
“No one comes in for Pic o’ De Crop, no one comes in for Soca Monarch, Soca Royale, nothing like that. These events have been failing for the past ten years consistently.
“So there cannot be a discussion about Crop Over without having promoters and producers at the table. It is not possible in 2021.”
Government declared at the last minute on December 31st, that all commercial fetes planned for the day and following two weeks would be cancelled and that Old Year’s Night event organisers would be reimbursed owing to the late notice. But three months later, the promoters have yet to see compensation.
Craig Corrie, Managing Director of Events Unusual, voiced his concerns about the payment delay during the online discussion.
He stressed that if any form of events is to return to the island, whether large are small, some form of guarantee from Government’s end would need to be in place to help protect the promoter’s investments in the event of a future last-minute lockdown.
He said: “One of the countries in Europe, their government had recognised the value of their events industry to their economy, and to get the economy moving again.
“What they did, as their COVID numbers had dropped to a level where they felt it was safe to start opening back up, the government offered a guarantee to promoters.
“So what the government said, is if you agree to host an event, we will guarantee you that if we have to shut your event down before time because of a spike in COVID cases, we will reimburse you all of the costs associated with the event.
“In a situation like that, promoters can say [they] are fine with going ahead and planning events because I know if this situation goes south again, they will be covered.”
Director of 4D Entertainment, Rudy Maloney, also said the industry is in desperate need of aid but with the amount of tax revenue that entertainment events generate, any form of aid from Government or any other financial institutions should not be viewed as a “free” bailout.
Maloney said: “I do not agree if the entertainment industry reach out to Government or [anyone] else for help, and people call them handouts.
“I do not agree because the hotel industry, tourism industry, there are other industries that reached out for help. The shopkeepers, the hairdressers, all of those people reached out for help… Why if we reach out for help are we calling it handouts?” (SB)
