No Money..No Sponsors..No St. Lucia Calypso Season

The following is a statement from the St. Lucia Calypso Association 2009, on the status of the continuation of the St. Lucia Calypso Season for 2010.

The St Lucia Calypso Association 2009 became a legal entity in December 2009 when 25 persons with a passion for the art form came together to form a new entity to look after the interest of calypso and all of its by-products. To date, the Association has adopted a Constitution and Bye-Laws and Regulations to administer its affairs.

The Association has a general membership of over 130 persons, and all functioning tents ie: Take Over Tent; New Generation or NG Soca Tent; Spectrum; South and Ambassadors Calypso Tents are all members.

In planning for this carnival season the Association has held several meetings with the Cultural Development Foundation whom we have agreed, would run the major show this year in collaboration with the SLCA 2009: that is the Groovy and Power Soca Shows; Calypso Semi Finals and Calypso Finals. The Association has also made it known to the CDF from as early as January when we first met, that in order for us to run a successful season, some form of assistance would be needed from the government of St Lucia through the CDF, bearing in mind that period of the $1 m grant had expired.

Whilst the Association acknowledges that there are challenges in the manner in which tents operate, we also are of the opinion that Carnival is a national activity much like Independence and should be subsidized in some fashion by our Government. The reality is that to day, it costs approximately EC$ 30,000.00 to run one calypso show during the Season. The $1m whilst it enabled the stakeholders of carnival to improve and upgrade its product also spiraled an upgrade in the charges of service providers who were of the opinion that “ya’ll got money from government so ya’ll can afford to pay us more”. Thus all costs increased. Eg whereas in 2005 we were paying EC$          for a band per night in 2010 the average cost of a band per night is EC$               . The National Cultural Center which has become the home for calypso and for which we pay for the use – albeit before 2010 at a subsidized cost comfortably seats between 600 – 700 persons. At EC$25 per person with an average of 500 patrons – you will recognize that tents through their efforts and the efforts of sponsors have actually been bearing the costs of running their tents.

This year sponsorship has been difficult to come by. You would recognize that it is the same corporate sponsors who are involved in almost all activities taking place in St Lucia. So whilst, proposals were sent out from as early as last year and some sponsors made commitments, when 2010 came around, calypso had to wait it’s turn. The usual comment of  “after jazz we’ll speak” had another adage, “after cricket we’ll speak”. By the time jazz & cricket were over there was little left for anything else.

2010 is a peculiar year financially for everyone.

This situation that we now face has come about after a series of meetings with the CDF which culminated with a meeting with the Minister of Culture on Monday June 14, 2010. At all of these meetings the SLCA 2009 has been consistent in indicating that it was virtually impossible to run a season this year without some sort of assistance being injected into the operation of the tents. Throughout these meetings we have been assured that some form of assistance would be given. So the tents took the decision to begin the season bearing in mind that our patrons were looking forward to it. However, although words have been plentiful, no actual financial assistance or even letter of commitment has been received. On Monday June 14 we informed the Minister of Culture that Wednesday June 16 was our deadline for receiving concrete word from the Government. On Wednesday night, the SLCA 2009 held a meeting with its members and the following is our position as stated in a letter to the Cultural Development Foundation dated June 17, 2010:

The SLCA 2009 is completely dissatisfied with the disregard and apparent lack of respect from the Ministry of Culture after the assurance that we would receive firm word on our subvention by Wednesday June 16, 2010. The SLCA 2009 therefore has taken a decision to:

Discontinue all further shows (calypso and soca) after Saturday June 19, 2010;

That no competition material will be submitted to CDF re: groovy and power soca (as requested by Friday June 18, 2010); or calypso

The SLCA 2009 is cognizant of the fact that this position will place CDF in an uncomfortable situation. However, the Association is satisfied that the CDF has an in-depth understanding of the plight of the calypso tents at this time. The SLCA 2009 will continue to support the CDF in its quest to produce Carnival 2010 within the realms of not incurring any more debt that can be subsidized by the calypso tents.