No decision yet on Crop Over Festival

There has been no official decision on the staging of Crop Over 2022 as yet, but the Ministry of Health will play an extremely crucial role in making the determination.

Highly-placed Government sources told Barbados TODAY, that while there has been much speculation about the annual festival, a final decision cannot be taken lightly.

In response to suggestions from stakeholders that the recent general election campaign and Twenty20 International series at Kensington Oval should provide some insight on the way forward for mass gatherings, the source said an entire six-week festival could not be determined or measured by one-off events.

“A critical player in Crop Over 2022 and beyond is the Ministry of Health. We are speaking about a festival that attracts thousands of people. We are not dragging our feet, we are not being over-hasty, we are being careful, critical, and responsible,” the source said.

The Government official advised the various associations to have their proposals ready so that when talks do begin, the stakeholders can hit the ground running.

“It would be wise for these associations and groups to get their plans together for 2022 and stop speaking from a place of emotion and, instead, get clinical and business-like about their approach so that when the table of discussion is open they can make meaningful contributions.”

President of the Barbados Association of Masqueraders (BAM) Anthony Layne on Monday said that three options were presented to the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) for the hosting of Kadooment Day.

He explained that the first is the traditional Kadooment Day route from the National Stadium to the Spring Garden Highway, the hosting of an exclusive ‘safe zone’ jump up on the ABC Highway and/or at an enclosed venue like the Bushy Park Raceway.

However, the Government source made it clear that those proposals were discussed in 2020 and 2021 and were not reflective of any talks so far this year.

“The proposals that the event promoters and the masqueraders are speaking to the Press about are proposals from 2020 and 2021. There are no 2022 proposals as no meetings have been held with any agency so far for the year,” the official said.

The source stressed that promoters were free to stage their own events since the revised protocols in late 2021 allowed for that.

“If event promoters feel strongly that there should be events, they should produce events because Government paved the way for them late last year to produce by reopening the industry,” the source said.

When contacted, the NCF’s Chief Executive Officer Carol Roberts-Reifer confirmed that no meetings have so far been held, but stated that the organisation has the festival foremost in mind.

“I want to assure the public and stakeholders included that the Crop Over Festival and how it can be produced creatively and as safely as possible has occupied the attention of the NCF since the advent of COVID,” she told Barbados TODAY.

“We have met with stakeholder groups on more than one occasion in the past, the most recent being the occasion of the partial reopening of the sector late last year. We received recommendations from these stakeholder bodies in 2020 and 2021. When we have fully fleshed out a programme that I am confident that we can stand behind and promote as an innovative calendar of events, the NCF will come to the public, after consultation with stakeholders, and say this is what we are collectively proposing.”

“It is unfortunate, however, that the one-one comments are being taken as official comments since the only way the festival can go forward is if we get serious and pool our collective ideas,” the NCF CEO added. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb