By Shamar Blunt
A season of welcomed success and support. This is how businesswoman and manager of the CO Williams House of Soca tent, Sharon Carew-White, described this year’s Crop Over season, after her tent captured two of the most coveted titles of the festival season. Carew-White, who is no stranger to the winners’ circle as her tent has been one of the more popular ones on offer over the years, with performers such as former Pic-O-De-Crop king Popsicle, Mole, Malik, Aziza and others attracting large audiences, said that this year in particular was an amazing one.
In her view, COVID-19 added a sense of uncertainty for the season in the earlier stages, however, it was on judging night for her tent that she was put at ease, after seeing the reigning Scotiabank Junior Calypso Monarch Quon electrifying the stage with his rendition of the soon to be Courtesy Garage Pic-O-De-Crop winning piece, Animal Kingdom.
Carew-White knew then that she and her team were in for a great season.
“When Quon got the double encore, because he did get a double encore that night, you were like alright, this is a hype and there was a great feeling.
“You came off of there saying ‘well I hope that we have at least five in the finals or more’. We went in with tents obviously having more numbers, but we went in [knowing] that we had quality in our artistes.
“On finals night it was literally a buzz, that ‘bee’ was all around, and you heard the harmonies from even the patrons.”
The CO Williams House of Soca manager stressed that the investment in young performers such as Quon, Doyenne, SugarRhe, and others, will always be seen as a priority for her, not only for the survival of the tent, but also effectively hone young talent who are often seen as disruptors to some of the tent’s faithful patrons.
“I’ve worked with the young persons – people were giving us that knock at ‘it’s the now generation, it’s not House of Soca as we knew it’. But it’s a revamp.
“It’s a metamorphosis, born again. So in bringing these young people with lots of talent that have come through the juniors, they have been successful and you just want to show to Barbados that they have something to offer,” she said.
When asked about the success Bruce Lee Almightee had this year with his Tune of the Crop winning Mauby single, Carew-White praised the efforts of the young artiste and said: “He’s been knocking, he has been trying, he was always Robin to Batman in terms of Mole and Bruce… so to have a song on his own and to sit on a rhythm and more or less take over the rhythm, that is a great feeling.”
Though overall it can be seen as a very successful year for the tents after most of them reported high attendance numbers during their various showcases, Carew-White insisted that they still needed assistance to continue providing artistes, in particular new ones, a platform, given the high production costs.
“I think that there is a place for tents, this year proved it because people did have a buzz to go home, get ready, and go to the tents. It would be nice to showcase more tent nights but again, that is financially [hard].
“Patrons do attend but what I did find was that if a person wanted to attend lots of tents, they were complaining about the cost to go to a tent. if you put $150 aside, there are six tents and a tent is $40 to $50 to enter, you can’t attend all six.
“The rise in the cost of the tent has nothing to do with the tents trying to make a profit. You have sound, lighting, venue, COSCAP, security, the artistes, your band, … the costing does add up. In some ways I don’t know how we will do it, but it is for stalwarts and stakeholders to put their heads together and decide how we can invest in our culture.”
She however added that Crop Over still remained the sweetest summer festival in her eyes, and as long as stakeholders continue to make the necessary investments, Crop Over can and will continue to flourish.
“I think that Crop Over is like one of those seasons like Christmas; people have a friendlier attitude and that to me is what resonates.
“You remember people were talking about that woman that was [on video] saying ‘I love Barbados’, there is a feeling you get during the [season].
“If you go to the fetes, the Soca State of Mind, the breakfast shows… to me that is a feeling like no other.Even in speaking to my sponsors they say to me Sharon, Crop Over is one of the biggest times of the year for them to make revenue.
This year for me was a stepping stone of what we can expect in 2023. We are going to bring quality music, our sponsors are going to come on board, [and] I’m sure they are going to back us, and I think it can only get bigger and better.”
