Chairman urges public to support Vincy Mas

If persons care about the survival of Vincy Mas, they should make a special effort to support the shows during the season to assist with offsetting some of the deficit that is incurred by the CDC to produce shows each year.{{more}}

This view was shared by Carnvial Development Corporation (CDC) chairman, Dennis Ambrose, in response to a question at CDC’s press conference on Tuesday.

He explained the reason for CDC’s debts, with the main reason being that in some cases, the “dance can’t pay for the lights.”

Ambrose pointed out that there were several shows that had a great amount of appeal and usually generate enough money to pay for themselves. These shows were stated to be Miss SVG, Miss Carival and Soca Monarch.

However, Ambrose noted that shows like Steel and Glitter, the calypso semi-finals and Mardi Gras usually suffered, particularly because of lack of attendance.

“There are some shows that are very important that actually are really the core of the Carnival, like the Mardi Gras. The CDC don’t make money at Mardi Gras. If you look at the Park on the day of Mardi Gras, you will see a very sparse attendance and you look on the street and you will see hundreds of people, perhaps thousands of persons outside there,” Ambrose said.

“When you look at the revenue then, it’s meagre but the cost of staging the Mardi Gras, paying the prizes, that production alone is well over perhaps $200,000 on that particular day.”

Stating that the CDC spends over $700,000 to stage shows for the festival each year, Ambrose noted that little can be done to reduce the cost of the festival, especially if St Vincent and the Grenadines hopes to keep up with the other festivals in the region.

“These shows are also important. The calypso semi-finals are important. Sometimes we don’t even make as much as we need. We are required to pay appearance fees, so it is not that all the shows make money. But these shows are important. They are what makes Vincy Mas and if perhaps we should consider eliminating some of those shows, but we won’t be having a Carnival. What we’ll be having is just fetes. Fetes can’t make Carnival. Fetes are only a part of Carnival,” he said.

The CDC chairman also stressed the importance of persons coming out to support all the shows, particularly if they love their culture as much as they say that they do.

“What I would like to see is more persons attending events,” Ambrose encouraged.

“Put your money where your mouth is. Come out and support. It is not a cheap exercise to put on an event.”