Crop Over band leaders expect fewer overseas revellers

Crop Over stakeholders are not expecting significant interest from overseas participants this year, due in large part to initial uncertainty surrounding the 2022 staging of the festival.

However, some band leaders and promoters have committed themselves to preserving the summer festival as the likelihood of profiting from this year’s scaled down events was dwindling.

“There is still interest, but it is not at the same level as in past years. So we are not 100 per cent sure how that will turn out,” president of the Barbados Association of Masqueraders (BAM) Anthony Layne told Barbados TODAY of the prospect of overseas interest.

“There are a lot of people who normally would have come that had already decided, for argument’s sake, to go to Grenada and they would not be coming here,” he added.

Layne, who is the leader of the Kontact Band, said early projections pointed to an approximately 30 to 40 per cent reduction in the number of overseas participants for his band.

“The airfare to Barbados is very expensive and to go to other places is cheaper than coming here, so people are going in that direction,” he said.

“To add to that, we weren’t sure what would happen. The word was out that there would be a Crop Over, but the format and so on wasn’t clear. It’s a lot clearer now but many band members would call and say ‘what are these two and three routes and how will it work?’ Those things were impacting decisions on where they would go,” the BAM president added.

On Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation Carol Roberts-Reifer announced adjustments to the original plan, including one Grand Kadooment jump, two Foreday Morning jumps and an option of full vaccination or a rapid antigen test for revellers to participate.

At the time, stakeholders revealed a significant reduction in the number of bands from more than 40 to 16 and 14 for Grand Kadooment and Foreday Morning, respectively.

Director of the popular Power X 4 Band Chetwyn Stewart has also admitted that traditional overseas patrons have been making alternative plans.

“We are hearing now that all patrons do not have to be tested, so that makes a big difference, but that is something that is late in coming. So yes, we have lost people and we will continue to lose people but we have to put our best foot forward,” he said.

“You might have gotten 400 people from overseas coming before, but you don’t know what position they are in now, you don’t know if they are coming and it is only now that authorities have started to be lenient on certain protocols.

“There’s a lot going on, but the bands are looking to come, they are trying to play their parts, but as business people, some of them will struggle,” the veteran band leader added.

Stewart explained that while he was grateful for the $10,000 subvention from the NCF, bands traditionally spend between $250,000 and $500,000 in overheads.

“The reality this year is that the bands that come are doing it because they bring bands and because they want Grand Kadooment to survive,” he said.

“But Power X 4 is coming; we want to play our part and contribute because to me it’s not about this year, it’s about next year. If we don’t bring bands it will harm us a lot more, because we will lose a lot more people to the other Carnivals and the reality is that the people from all of the other countries are realising that there is money in putting on a jump and that overseas people come and they spend money,” he added.

Prior to the pandemic, Crop Over injected approximately $110 million into the local economy. kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb