Crop Over promotion, planning to be reviewed

Culture minister Senator Shane Archer has suggested that an earlier launch could help Barbados attract more overseas visitors and diaspora travelers to Crop Over, as the National Cultural Foundation prepares consultations on the festival’s promotion and execution.

While declaring the festival a success this year, he said the festival needs to be rethought to improve how it is promoted and executed.

He said: “Within the [National Cultural] Foundation, we are going to start a series of consultations with our stakeholders in the industry to relook the way that we promote and execute Crop Over.”

Among the minister’s proposals is to launch the festival earlier to attract more tourists and Barbadians in the diaspora, who make their summer travel plans early in the year.

“I think we launch Crop Over a bit late because launching a festival in April and starting two or three months after that means that we are not really catching the tourists and second- and third-generation Barbadians that live overseas because they would have already booked their flights and set their plans for their summer. So, I think that we need to launch Crop Over way earlier so that we can capture more persons,” he said, adding that the aim was to return Crop Over to the top festival in the Caribbean.

“We must return to where we were in the early 2000s, 2010s,” Senator Archer insisted.

Saying that the return of Party Monarch and Cohobblopot, which were absent for six and more than ten years respectively, had also contributed to the festival’s success, he suggested the Party Monarch contest should be held later in the Crop Over calendar.

On this year’s festival, Senator Archer said there was increased attendance at most events and no major incidents involving violence or serious accidents.

“Even though the numbers this year have increased for the majority of the events, we did not have any major incidents in terms of any violence,” he said. “We had not had any major incidents in terms of any serious accidents after the feting. We had a very good, successful Crop Over with that regard.”

Figures from the National Cultural Foundation showed that around 5 000 people attended the Opening Gala, up from last year, he said. For the first time, all Junior Monarch tents were completely sold out, while the Junior Monarch semi-finals and finals drew 4 500 people, with Carifesta Village at 90 per cent capacity, he added.

Some 7 500 people attended Party Monarch, Cohobblopot attracted 8 500, and Pic-O-De-Crop was completely sold out with 6 000 attendees. A total of 10 000 people went on the road for Grand Kadooment, he said.

But Pandemonium – the steelpan concert staged at the National Botanical Gardens – was the only event to record a decline, with about 12 500 people attending. He attributed this to the date change and heavy rainfall during the day.

Nevertheless, the culture minister told the BLP’s St George North branch meeting on Sunday at the Valley Resource Centre: “I really want to take this opportunity to thank the public for coming out in numbers to support the events throughout the season.”

Turning to concerns about the content of some bashment soca music, Senator Archer’s opposition was explicit: “When you produce music and if it has lewd lyrics, I will not support it. If you promote the degradation of women, I will not support it, and the government will not support it.”

But the former cultural promoter-turned-minister said the genre ought to be recognized as part of the current music landscape, particularly given its popularity among younger listeners.

“We must face the reality of it,” Senator Archer said. “The majority of the artists now have been travelling through it and the truth is that the younger persons within the soca realm are listening to it.”

He said the government had a responsibility to help improve the quality of Barbadian music. He announced that workshops would begin within the next few weeks on intellectual property, music production, songwriting, appearance and marketing.

“Every time we just complain, and we do nothing to assist the artist, we are also contributing to the problem,” he said.

(JB)