Editorial
Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has promised that the THA’s 2024-2025 budget on June 24 will focus on building human capacity, along with “roads and sanitation that everyone wants”.
Mr. Augustine is right to think of the assembly’s spending to improve Tobago’s human resources as well as its infrastructure, but he should also be aware that one of the island’s most popular and longest-running cultural events, the Festival of Tobago’s heritage is facing great importance. the challenges.
Is he impressed by Tobago’s October Carnival celebration, which seems to have come together after a shaky start to become a promising asset on Tobago’s festive calendar?
In November 2023, the Chief Secretary expressed his satisfaction with the 2023 Carnival and the business opportunities it brought to Tobagonians.
THA also managed to reduce its year-over-year expenses for the festival, falling from $17.5 million to $12.5 million, suggesting that experience has improved efficiency at the event.
Mr Augustine boasted that stakeholders were delighted, with hoteliers reporting close to 100 per cent occupancy and businesses reporting a 500 per cent increase in profits during the carnival season.
The Tobago Chamber of Commerce approved the second October Carnival with a perfect score. For the contractors and service providers who organized the many events of the 2023 Heritage Festival, the experience has been different.
After nearly a year, THA Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris announced in April that 95 percent of the outstanding payments had been made.
Eight months after winning the festival’s calypso monarch competition, all Garve Sandy had to show for her winning performance was a large presentation check and no actual prize.
Unfortunately, THA has managed to earn a reputation for paying poorly with service providers at many events, including Carnival 2023, the Tobago Jazz Experience, the Blue Food Festival, the October Carnival and the Heritage Festival.
Tobago’s cultural and creative community is not well funded to withstand that level of financial instability. Most of the events organized for the Heritage Festival are community events and it is deeply disturbing to learn that nine of these events, most based on local cultural and social traditions, have been dropped from the 2024 line-up along with the opening night gala .
What, the would-be patron is entitled to ask, is the Tobago Heritage Festival without the participation of Store Bay, Black Rock, Pembroke, Les Coteaux, Belle Garden, Buccoo, Goodwood and Scarborough?
Mt Cullane, Mason Hall Charlotteville, Moriah, Speyside and Roxborough are still on the bill but THA needs to investigate what is going on with its signature event.
October Carnival may be the shiny new ornament on Tobago’s calendar of events, but the Heritage Festival speaks directly to the island’s shared cultural traditions and should be given the respect and support it deserves.
