The Emancipation Chronicles: New Perspective to cost-cutting measures
- Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 at 2:25 PM
Let me throw this question to the reading public,then prepare myself to take blows:
WHY DO WE NEED THREE FESTIVALS AT THE SAME TIME ON A SMALL ISLAND LIKE TORTOLA?
I am really getting worried about the new culture of these islands. We seem to have raced ahead of all competition, real or imagined, to become a people of distinction when it comes to “talking all day, and partying all night”, continuously.
But the highlight comes at the August Emancipation celebrations with one festival in Road Town, one in East End, and the other in Carrot Bay.
Maybe I’m being selfish, or maybe I’ve lost the “Limin spirit”, but since I’ve never heard of any real benefit, financial or otherwise that has benefitted the country as a whole from these events that take so much from the public purse, I wonder if all of this is necessary.
Why can’t there be one Emancipation Festival, and have all the communities in the Territory contribute to taking it “from good to great”?
Some of you might agree with me, that facts and figures, though handy to have when talking about these matters, are always elusive.
Reports are seldom ever handed in, and if they are, we are not privy to the contents.
For example, what did the report on the first Music Fest without Mahoney say? Oh, well. Maybe it doesn’t matter. What matters is that people need somewhere to go for fun and entertainment, and we should be trying to get people on the island all year round, not only at August time, or in May.
But instead of having a few nights of neighborhood mayhem with loud music and vulgarity into the wee hours of the morning, those who cater to tourism, like hotels and restaurants should try to develop specialties at their establishments that could attract not only the visitors, but residents alike.
Things like theatrical performances of historic events, dance performances, folk music, story-telling, poetry reading, demonstrations of preparing certain native dishes, etc., instead of an explosion of noise and nakedness, drunkenness and disorderly behavior among the youths and grown-up juveniles alike, in the name of Festival.
In my opinion, the management of festival villages that I’ve seen is generally in poor taste. Decisions seem to be made on individuals’ personal preferences, rather than on what would reflect a high standard for the country. Lack of policy and guidelines is a national problem in any area of society, so when it comes to festivals the lethal combination of “dictatorship” and a “free-for-all” mentality really breaks loose.
Being fed-up and disgusted, many people who should be supporting the festival, stay away as far as they can from it, and that’s not good enough. The festival shouldn’t just be for a certain category of people, but for everybody who consider themselves a part of civil society. And, if money is to be made from participating in festival, we should not be exporting the bulk of it away by bringing in foreign performers, when our own local artists are not being invited and paid to perform in other places in a reciprocal manner.
One Virgin Islands, One Festival, One Festival & Fairs Committee, One National Festival Policy, One Mission, One Vision for Festival; that is what we need to have, and this should include the input of people of the Territory whether they are from East, West, North, South or Central.
I think instead of having three major festival events on Tortola, Anegada and Jost Van Dyke should be considered in the mix for spreading out the festival dollars, and give revelers more room to play. The possibilities are limitless but an intelligent committee can get together and brainstorm the best ideas that would improve the product of the celebration.
Now that the season is upon us, and things are in full swing, I wish everyone a safe and happy Emancipation Festival, and hope that we can get something more practical, cost effective and better organized for next year.
I would like to see what others think about this. Feedback, negative or positive is welcome.
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