The International Artiste Night show will not be staged this carnival season due to financial limitations.
Dominica Festivals Committee (DFC) Events Director Val Cuffy said too much expenses are incurred to organize that event.
“Due to financial limitation, it costs a lot to have foreign artistes on island during that period of time,” he stated.
The first International Artiste Night was held in 2008 with Jamaican dancehall artiste Mr. Vegas as the headline act. In 2009, Jamaican reggae and dancehall artiste Wayne Marshall was the featured performance.
The Soca Monarch, which was formerly a joint event with the International Artiste Night will also not form part of The Real Mas 2010 programme. That event was moved to May 23, according to Cuffy.
“We have taken a decision to move it out of the programme because the Trinidad people who are working with Daddy Chess have expressed the fact that they’d like to give us some sort of technical support towards having a very successful event,” Cuffy explained.
Daddy Chess has been a participant of the Trinidad Soca Monarch Show for the past two years.
Cuffy encouraged the public to give tremendous support to the Bouyon Festival slated for February 6.
“As you’re quite aware the financial resources are not as deep as Donald Trump’s Miss Universe, but we do our best we can with what we have. Our local bands will be headlining this event at the Pottersville Savannah which is the venue for Dominica’s Carnival.
“We look forward to tremendous performances by all of them and Rhythm and Heats is a new band that’s out with Rah, we look forward to that aspect of that activity in terms of ensuring he can come back into the music scene with the WCKs of this world, the Triple Ks, the Kross Vibes will also form part of that activity,” the carnival organizer revealed.
A Big Truck Jam on February 14 will also feature various Dominican bands. Cuffy said some of these bands will perform on stage leading up to J’ouvert and others will perform on their trucks for J’ouvert in the city.
.. PLZZZ GET SOME FRESH BLOOD IN THERE NAH MAN
De sooner Dominica and dominicans realise that bull has to go it the sooner or canival will start progressing again, bull and his bright ideas
it come’s down to the same dam problem every year no progress, no financing, i say get rid of val cuffy, why is it, that alwin bully and more resposible people are not charge carnival promotions?cece cauldoron must be turning in her grave.
‘warma’ one place tthere where i think u hve it wrong… DOMINICA IS SLOWLY AND SLOWLY …NO LONGER A CREOLE SPEAKIN COUNTRY MY FREND ..st lucia is a creole speaking country but dominica? not so much so. we need to start teaching creole in alll skools cus wen we travel and we meet other people who embrace their home dialect and their own creole we will feel ashamed that we havnt done the same to the extent where the majority of our people can say something FLUENTLY in creole. but how im seeing it is creole is dying in dominica (imagine alot of st lucians dont even know that we speak patwa). old people were realy ignorant in our days they saw it as disrespectful for us to speak creole around them..:(
i agree wit prissy. we cant go international if no one beyond the caribbean (or beyond the west indies infact) cannot undertand us or relate to our music…beyon music needs to have a real message
As much as i would like to see more of our Dominican artists showcased in WCF. their musical standards needs to improve immensely, the songs are too localized. There is no class in their songs.That goes for the calypsonians to. When are we going to get some real calypsos from these so call calypsonians?
Every year it’s the same old tune. There are other things to sing about besides politics. Calypsonians like Spider, Ency, Chubby and others gave us songs that made us want to go or to listen to the calypso shows.Those we have nowadays really make you want to take some sleeping pills and sleep all night.
@WARMA I totally agree with the points you have made!!! Hope people from the WCMF management is taking note of that.
Let’s hope that another island does not take it from us and make it bigger and better. If I remember clearly I think a few years ago St. Lucia showcased a show similar to this…..really dont know what became of it.
Yes we do have allot of talent on the island, but when you want our carnival to be of a higher standard we do have to have some international artist involve in it, so we could get other people from the regional caribbean islands to come to experiece mas Dominique, this helps our economy in a great way, and when some of these people see the talent we have who knows where some of our own may go, we need to stop complaining like little kids, every carnival every where have international artist there involve in it.
To Val and the organization, you guys need to stop waiting for carnival to be there for you all to start looking for sponsors for the girls and for the shows, carnival comes every year and this should be a continual thing all through the year, funds need not only be raised in Dominica but you can go out and find resouces out there, advertisting companies pays well so guys go out there right after carnival 2010 and start your work for 2011 ok, things will look better next year, stop looking like jokers in the people eyes.
Why these people always crying financial restraints? Does anyone audit them? Don’t they get a budget every year? What happens to the earnings from those events? Are we to believe they always fall short? If they do then why aren’t they getting a larger budget the following year?
These are some of the questions that need to be asked of Val and the DFC people need to demand answers also. If they can’t provide then, then they need to be replaced.
I always get angry whenever i see the lineup for WCMF with Jamaican artists included. Jamaica is not a creole-speaking country, their music is not based on that culture, why are they in the WCMF? The most operative words in WCMF is Creole Music – there are several countries and artists that fall into that category, but Jamaica is not one. If they want to showcase international talent, why can’t they get a good Soukouss artist or band from the Congo – Sakis? Loketo? And what about individual artists – Tanya St Val, Cheela, Bijou, Destinee…etc etc
Dominica is lucky that no other creole-speaking country has grabbed on to this concept. We still have the opportunity to make this a truly uniquely Dominican thing the world admires but with inadequate funding, someone else might grab it and provide the necessary funding. And why can’t they get people in there that really know the culture?
If i were to say to the DFC that i didn’t think that D/ca’s artists were sub-standard and i didn’t like their material, i would probably be whipped in public.
If i asked DFC why foreigners are showcased instead of a D/can artist, in a D/can cultural event, they would provide a reasonable excuse….
So, what i would like to know is how many D/can artists are, or have been headliners, or showcased, in foreign a cultural event?..
we big up outsiders above our own, doesn’t that say that we think they are not up to the standard?
PEACE!!
@ Joe …. yes as a country we have to showcase our local talent but this is a “world Creole music festival” it is not just a show for Dominicans, as a result we cannot just have only local artist perform. IF we expect this show to grow and become a world class show we have to look beyond our borders.
With respect to Val Cuffy, every year we hear the same story for both carnival and the festival, we need to make these people accountable for what happens to the money. As a matter of fact I think it’s time we have new management for both. I mean after years and years of this management is still don’t see any growth in either our carnival or the festival. We want things to be bigger better lets start with the management.
Speaking of Miss Universe I think Dominica would to well to invest some money into Marah Walters…is just a pity I couldnt do it myself.. I dont know what it would take for DFC to see the potential in investing in her…it would probably have cost even less than cost to bring Sean Paul at WCMF 2008…anyways join the Marah Walter for Miss Universe FB Group if you believe she can do it1
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=146692010375&ref=ts
Pure BULL!!
When are we going to get some REAL figures/breakdown
of the “expenses” incurred.
Perrrrleassse!!! I strongly Believe them ppl making money..
and ..pocketing it..
we never know how much money was made at the end of major events..
so…the inability to stage these shows..due to financial restraints
is Pure Bull..
its time other qualified ppl organise these events..
cos clearly those who have been doing for the past two years
or more..and just always singing the same sad boring story
are incapable of doing a PROFITABLE job!!!!
VAL CUFFY getting on my nevers.WHY bring in jamaicans? DOMINICA has enough LOCAL TALENT. this was the problem with the W.C.M.F . dominica doesn’t show- case enough of its local talents,if we dont put them out there how will the rest of the world hear about them? VAL and the festival commission needs to SHOW SUPPORT AND RESPECT to all the artist. how many dominican artist travelled/ing to jamacia to perform at there festivals?