Crop Over ‘success’ prompts call for more venues, better planning

A surge in visitors and a safe festival season delivered a boost to the economy during Crop Over, an entertainment industry leader said on Tuesday, while warning that mounting logistical pressures — including venue shortages and overlapping events — risk undermining future growth if not addressed.

Reflecting on the overall execution of the festival, Entertainment Association of Barbados president Rudy Maloney said: “This year, we had plenty of events, and really good events this year. A lot of visitors came to the island, and I think we did very well for the economy. We had a number of people going to a number of events this year, including the staple events. We had a good season, and we didn’t have any violent events or anything like that.”

Despite the overall success, Maloney noted that the high volume of events created significant operational bottlenecks. Venue availability proved to be a primary concern, as a limited number of locations were required to host multiple functions throughout the festivities.

“I know we need more venues for sure, because this year a lot of the venues were used multiple times,” Maloney said. “You sometimes had four or five events happening at the same time and finishing at the same time, with people wanting to go to see other events. I think that is something that needs to be worked on. I’m not saying put in any kind of controls, I’m just saying that the whole agenda needs to be looked at so that the season becomes more successful.”

The concentration of activities also placed severe pressure on the island’s event infrastructure and hospitality workforce. Service providers were stretched thin attempting to accommodate the intense schedule over short periods:

“This year we had a real strain on the service providers because of the number of events that were having. Staff and bartenders from the same companies were working long hours and had plenty of events to do on the same day. There are also only so many people in Barbados who can do set-ups for big stages and small stages. Because these things are seasonal, people are not going to invest solely in something if it is not happening twelve months a year. If we were having continuous activity year-round, then it would make sense for people to invest in all these things.”

To support the industry’s long-term sustainability, the entertainment association president praised ongoing workforce training initiatives led by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), in a bid to raise professional standards across the festival economy.

“I think that the NCF is doing a pretty decent job when it comes to helping the industry with stakeholders and other professionals,” the representative noted. “We have a number of trained persons now who can handle various responsibilities in the industry, and we look forward to that continuing.”

He said he wants structured discussions with safety officials, security forces and service providers to refine event scheduling and logistics ahead of the next festival season.

(RR)