PHILIPSBURG — The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) is facing a tough contest now that several promoters have withdrawn their Carnival-events from the Jocelyn Arndell Festival Village.
Minister of Justice Anna Richardson revealed in a radio-interview with Lady Grace why the promoters are upset: The SCDF tells them that they will have to recoup their expenditures “at the gate” (so from paying visitors) but many who attend these events get in for free because they have a season pass. As a result, some promoters end up with a negative financial result.
Mr. Rude (Berteau Fleming), promoter of the Night of the Hitmakers withdrew his event from the Village and he was not the only one and now shows like Soca Rumble, Bacchanal Sunday and Caribbean Flag Fest will all take place at other venues. II Brothers Entertainment followed suit by cancelling their Reggae Night show.
The SCDF is now upset with Minister Richardson because she gave the promoters permits to hold their events at other venues. The minister is not impressed. She said in the radio-interview that she cannot be expected to support bad behavior (by the SCDF) by withholding permits from the promoters.
“We hear the SCDF on the radio and they post on social media and it is all disrespectful,’ the minister said. “The SCDF does not own carnival. My question is: do you dictate where people go to enjoy themselves? Everything I do is based on the law and there is no reason not to give these individuals their permits.”
Promoter Skelet stands behind the minister, given his comments on social media. “Stop mixing up politics and blame our minister of justice. If Roxy Beach Bar brings Cardi B the same weekend would you ask the minister to shut it down?”
Skelet encourages the SCDF to read the Dutch competition legislation.
The SCDF-website suggests that it is business as usual. In the news section it does however mention that the Night of the Hitmakers, Caribbean Flag Fest and Bacchanal Sunday are “missing from the schedule.” As a reason, the SCDF suggests “that the promoters indicated that they would not host a show or that they missed the deadline to express their interest in hosting a show.”
In a press release issued on March 20 the SCDF announced the cancellation of the senior carnival queen pageant, saying that two of the three remaining contestants could not get enough sponsoring.
The SCDF also stated that two international shows have cancelled, citing financial risks “created by the granting of permits to entities to host events during the Carnival period.”
“That decision is not sitting well with sponsors and Carnival and its stakeholders are suffering as a result of the confusion and uncertainties it has created,” the press release states.
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Interview Lady Grace with Minister of Justice Anna Richardson
Interview Lady Grace with SCDF board members
Statement Skelet on Facebook
Opinion piece
A sense of entitlement
The St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) runs on volunteers. So it is safe to say that the people who take the decisions at this foundation are a bunch of amateurs – some with more business sense than others. No problem and no offense: it happens.
One must assume that the SCDF-board members are of good will; otherwise they would not even be there. But at the same time, it seems that they have developed a rather unhealthy sense of entitlement. The SCDF believes, and it shows in all of its press releases, that it owns the Carnival. This is of course a gross misconception, so much so that Minister of Justice Anna Richardson felt the need to say during a radio-interview that the SCDF does not own the Carnival.
The minister’s statement came of course after harm had already been done. But hey, you know what the British say: it is no use crying over spilt milk. One would think that the foundation is now taking some time for reflection. You know: wondering about stuff like: where did we go wrong?
Well, that is not hard to define and as usual it is all about money. Promoters who bring shows to the Jocelyn Arndell Festival Village – erroneously renamed Carnival Village by the SCDF – have made that clear.
What is going on there? Promoters have to earn their expenditures back “at the gate.” This means that recouping the money they spend on artists, security and equipment has to come from those who actually pay to get into the venue.
Guess what? Quite some visitors to these Carnival events enter the venue with a Carnival season pass; and therefore, they do not have to fork over a penny to join the fun. As a result, some promoters end up with a negative financial result. Now they have had enough and they made this clear by withdrawing their events from the Carnival-venue and possibly hosting them elsewhere.
The SCDF is crying foul, saying that the minister should not have given these promoters a permit to host their events during Carnival. Some international shows have already been cancelled, because their promoters fear a financial fiasco. According to the SCDF this is because permits have been granted to events outside of the Carnival-venue.
In a market place where entrepreneurs vie for the money of consumers this is called competition and the SCDF is not used to dealing with competition. That the rebellion among promoters is something that is caused by the way the SCDF is treating them is a thought that has never entered the heads of the foundation’s board members.
In a presentation to parliament where the SCDF opposed plans to put Carnival on bid, it listed the major expenditures of the event. It totaled something like $590,000 for stuff like sound and light ($115,000), the festival village ($55,000) and entertainment fees ($200,000). The presentation also made clear that the SCDF gets $190,000 in subsidies from the government.
Those are serious numbers for an organization that relies on volunteers taking the right decisions.
On the other end of the balance sheet, the foundation is in the business of selling season passes. Those passes give its holders the right to attend any event at no cost. That’s most likely where the trouble with promoters begin.
And yet there seems to be a more than reasonable solution for this rather awkward situation. People who do not have a season pass have to pay to attend a show during Carnival; those who have a season pass don’t have to pay anything; they have paid their dues already to the SCDF.
This way, promoters end up with all the costs of hosting their shows, but they do not collect enough money at the gate to break even or make a profit. The SCDF in the meantime sends out boastful press releases about these shows as if they have organized them. Does that sound fair to you?
I do not know how much money the foundation collects every year from selling season passes but it must be more than a fistful of dollars. A reasonable solution would be that the SCDF pays promoters a percentage of the season pass-value for every pass holder who attends an event. That way, promoters get their fair share and this is probably also a way to keep everything together.
O, the SCDF cannot afford this? In that case it will have to take a good hard look at the way it spends its money and adjust its spending habits in order to do justice to the efforts of the promoters that make Carnival such an exciting event.
In the meantime, it would not hurt if the SCDF used its website to publish its financials. You know, full disclosure? That way everybody can see where the money is going. It is the right thing to do because, after all, the SCDF is playing with the people’s money, just like our politicians do.
