BVI News

No venue! Calypso show, pageants dropped from Easter Fest because of low interest, funds

Chairwoman of the Virgin Gorda Festival Committee, Lyra Gorge

Insufficient funds, the lack of a proper venue, and low interest among residents have been cited as reasons the calypso show and pageants have been dropped from the upcoming Virgin Gorda Easter Festival.

Chairperson of the Virgin Gorda Easter Festival Lyra George told BVI News on Monday that hopefully, these events will fall back on the lineup next year.

“Virgin Gorda don’t have anywhere to keep shows unless we go back into the village,” she said.

She explained that the Catholic Centre that was utilised in the past is no longer available because the church was destroyed during the 2017 hurricanes.

As a result, the centre is being used in the interim to host church services.

“Second of all, the area we are going to be using for the main village is the lower section [of the recreational grounds] because it is being utilised mainly for sports,” she added.

George, in the meantime, said residents are particularly disinterested in the Miss Virgin Gorda show.

“If we had a large influx of ladies, we would maybe pull off something, but the interest wasn’t really there this year. So we just said we will do it [show] early next year.”

Similarly, George said it is the lack of funds that has affected the Calypso Show’s place on this year’s Easter Fest which begins on April 13 with a cultural food fair at Little Dix grounds and which will see the bulk of activities from April 20 to 22.

“If you don’t have these monies to assist them you can’t do much,” she said.

Seek sponsorship

In the meantime, George said one of their hurdles is the fact that participants of the respective events no longer seek sponsorship to cover their cost to participate.

These participants rely heavily on the organising committee. George, is, however, hoping that this will change.

“You end up paying out a lot of money because of the way it is done, and I hope that it will change in the future. The only thing is we would have drinks and such that we would sell, but it is nothing that you would make no big money from. I have never seen a profit come from any of the shows.”

She said this year they were mainly focused on the Miss Virgin Gorda and the Prince & Princess pageants.

Meanwhile, George said residents can look forward to the annual food fair, the fishing tournament and, among other things, village entertainment that will be graced by local and international acts.

The Andrew Fahie-led administration inherited a $300,000 debt in relation to BVI festivals. And, while no specific budgetary allocation for Easter Festival has been made public, roughly $700,000 has been earmarked to host all the festivals in 2019.

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13 Comments

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  1. WOW says:

    You all need to cancel the whole s**t!!!!

    Like 30
    Dislike 4
    • For Real says:

      For real! Cancel the whole thing until there is sufficient funds. Run this thing like you run your house or business.

      Like 19
      Dislike 5
    • Reasoning says:

      With the annual hurricane season only weeks away, (and major earthquakes always a possibility), let us get back into the churches to give thanks. We have numerous beautiful beaches and warm blue water. What’s wrong with that?

      Like 12
      Dislike 3
  2. Anonymous says:

    Were not those two activities the core events from which the entire festival was centered around and budgeted for?

    Something seems at odds with this decision.

    Like 4
    Dislike 4
  3. Crazy! says:

    U all spoil them, get your own sponsership! As to the village ,how long is festival that it can not be accommodated on the field? Nonsense. I’m reminded of festivals past where everything was held in the village. the present reality is that you might have to return to that until a better position obtains!

    Like 8
    Dislike 3
    • hmmm says:

      I used to say this all the time. Why can’t they not raise funds from the year b4. As soon as the previous year fest finish; start preparing for next year. But like you said spoil and laziness

  4. Concern says:

    @wow, you must be a tolian because VG people can’t celebrate anything. They actually have a great line up this year. Kuddos to vg with a limited budget and still doing their best.

    Like 5
    Dislike 3
  5. Anonymous says:

    I certainly agree cancel the Festival, it is a waste of money at this time to do it. The money can be used to do other things, such as fixing the Admin Building.

  6. Die Hard Virgin Gordian says:

    I hope the hypocrites who are calling for VG festivities to be cancelled will call for the ones in Talktola to be cancelled as well. If anything let’s cancel all not one. You Hypocrites

    Like 5
    Dislike 1
  7. SMH says:

    For some people, it’s easy to say cancel the festivities. To others, it’s a cultural norm from before our time. As time changes and most of our festival Greats have passed, so has the meaning and reasons for why we celebrate these activities. We have to much Negative Vibes in Our Communities! Too much Holier than thou personalities,and We tend to make money the forefront of Everything. We as Virgin Islanders need to take a look and learn from Other Island Association and try and to copy their tactics. They Live as One and support each other Functions and Events,not criticized, year down,and bad talk their Own.We need to drop the Negativity My People! You”‘ll smothering Our Future!

  8. No Brain says:

    Why nobody thinking? Take the money you got to pay all those foreign artist, And I think it is about 30.000 each, and fiix a little Village and as usual give local Cultural people a little pittance as accustomed and have a real cultural thing next year. Stop sending all the money out of this Country and still complaining. Does the BVI people who organizing Festival really know their Culture. Such a shame. Every year same s**t. That is why our youth don’t know better.

  9. Huh says:

    Well as I said many times unless you not going over haul all the various committees you will forever be in trouble with funds… Vg festival is only for a weekend simple keep the calypso show in the village on the Saturday night keep the queen show on the sunday night and venue..There is enough places in vg to keep calypso tents and sell drinks and fish and barbecue… starring from next month on a Friday every month until next year Easter I sure there will be some kind of funding in place… a breakfast or bake sale a little raffle now and again a bingo night come on people time to get out of the mindset of depending on government alone… I want to join a committee doesn’t matter which one all I want to do is see progress on these Virgin Islands… I might be wrong but the money you going to spend to bring Mr.Killer, farmer happy and dexta daps I sure if you cut atleast one of them that funding could have gone to either the calypso or the queen show..Can the public get an insight as to what was payed to these three men not just word of mouth but by actual proof by a receipt? My guess would be in the range of $60-$80k which is going to leave the territory and that’s only the figure for three artists for a weekend when will this ever stop… Friday night line up:Sistah Joyce,King Paido,Shine-I,Ritical,Dj Carley cartel,Cj,juego,Ashley from ABM,Mcdaddy,Boss,B’more an I sure if you open up for local act more will come forward with each performer getting atleast 45minutes and walk away with $1000 each the good thing is all that money stays here an it’s still cheaper than the price for 1 foreign performer… Saturday night BVI bands of the bands show down…Vibes,Show time,ABM,Xtreme,OMG,and the rest local bands.Sunday night Dj’s of all dj’s it don’t necessarily mean it’s a competition but more so DJ’s show casting there skill set and marketing themselves to an extent… how many foreign act I mentioned in my line ups

  10. CW says:

    STRUPES FIX THE ISLANDS AND THINK ABOUT THE RECOVERY NOT A DAMNED PARTY SMH

    THERE’S WORK TO BE DONE AND YOU ALL TYPE AND COMPLAIN NOBODY DOES YOUR WORK FOR YOU

    DISGRACEFUL

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