In light of the upcoming Saint Lucia Carnival Season 2023, the Saint Lucia Carnival Band Association has expressed the lack of support that is given to local carnival bands here on the island.
In a Monday briefing Minister for Tourism, Dr. Ernest Hilaire says he agrees that the carnival bands receive the least support amongst all the stakeholders.
He says with a number of events taking place within the carnival season, over 3 million dollars is spent for the purpose of prize funds.
“The carnival bands get the least support amongst the stakeholders; maybe after this season I will share with you the expenses.. the amount we spend on panorama, on calypso, on king and queen of the bands the big costumes, when you see how much we spend; on groovy and power soca… prize money alone for the season for those events are over 3 million dollars.” he shares.
He noted although the bands do receive the least support, they are the ones who bring out the people to the parade, so their complaints are valid. However, with the sale of costumes, they are generating revenue in comparison to other events such as calypso and panorama that aren’t generating revenue due to the lack of anything to sell per se, which causes the government to provide more support to such events.
“The bands are the ones that bring out the hundreds and the thousands on the road, but they get the least support, so in a sense, they can complain but they too are the ones with the capacity to generate revenue because they sell the costumes.. calypsonians have nothing to sell per se, panorama has nothing to sell, so they get more support, but the bands sells costumes.” he added.
The minister says the government will look into ways to make the carnival bands more profitable in the future, in ways such as reducing production costs by sourcing supplies needed out of China where the cost is significantly reduced.
“If you look at a costume, the biggest cost factor for costumes is feathers, so let’s look at that. Let’s see how we can bring down the cost of feathers; it’s not easy like we’re reducing the cost, let’s see if we can get feathers directly out of China the cost is significantly reduced; there are a lot of those intricacies we can look at that are challenging for them.” he concluded.
Photo: Events Saint Lucia
