Though the general impression is that Carnival 2011 was a successful undertaking; officials are convinced that a huge amount of effort is still needed to develop the product to a higher standard.
Chairman of the Carnival Development Committee (CDC) Alwin Bully, in giving a brief analysis of the annual celebration, highlighted the need for proper surveys among the public in relation to days that certain aspects of carnival are hosted as one of these requirements.
He also pinpointed greater participation among schools and the development of the carnival product as a tourism attraction.
Moreover he said one of the main problems facing the organizers is the timely organization of the celebrations. He proposed that CDC committees be reorganized and revamped to tackle that issue.
“The main challenge has always been and will continue to be how to start early…. That’s where our organization needs to be reexamined. The examination of our CDC and the sub committees of the CDC that operates within the DFC-what new subcommittees do we need? How do we need to revamp our present committees to ensure that they are strong working committees? What areas can we invite people to volunteer for as committee members?” he said.
Bully also stated that there was a lack of promotion for the event as it regards cruise tourism.
“We know that apart from the spectacle or show side of things there are things like sanitation, things like traffic control, things like promotion, what do our ports look like on Carnival? Do people feel that they are entering a carnival environment? Do the cruise ship, when they sail into our harbors… they know that they are coming to see a carnival? I don’t think so, I think they’re surprised to see a carnival,” he said.
He added, “For our travel companies agencies dealing with the cruise ships have to incorporate carnival into their cruise schedule and sell a cruise at that time as a carnival cruise to Dominica and find ways in which the parties can contribute and participate in our carnival financially and even not just during carnival but after carnival.”
He suggested that costumes be placed on display at a special museum to depict what Dominica carnival looks likes after carnival.
The chairman said that organizers are currently experimenting with certain aspects of carnival in order to devise the best alternative to a more wholesome product.
“I’m not gonna say that we are operating exactly as we would like to operate right now because that is not so. We know that we still experimenting with various things. We’re experimenting, say, with the days on which the event should take place. The Monday as opposed to the Tuesday, for the official costume parades of the contestants and the other bands,” he said.
“So there is a lot of work to be done and we are ready to do it,” Bully added.
I think the biggest problem is that we have not yet decided, after so many years of hosting it, what we really want our carnival to be like. i for one believe that jouvert should be for only lapo and steel band stop that session at 8 or 9 and all the trucks will be ready for the road by10. No tired musicians and revellers. As far as the critical mass goes, we should actively seek to twin our carnival with one of the neighbouring countries like antigua or st Lucia. Let our bands and costume builders go down there in large numbers when is theirs and let them come up when its ours. have a joint soca monarch competition and so on. We also have to take advantage of our village carnivals. let marigot Portsmouth, Grandbay and so on have their opening before the national opening so u get the best of these carnival going into town for a grander opening.
New Blood means new ideas, more positive ibes, more insight into what the ppl really want. so much could be done by simple reorganization of the commtiees or creation of a “creative commitee” which can deal strictly with ideas that should be implimented, they can be the brains and ensure that other commitees or groups work out the scenarios physically. they could be interns or actual buisness places. there is soo much that can be doen to reduce cost. so so so much. there is an issue which needs to be dealt with and that is the heads need to make room for younger people. there are so many young talented innovative persons that are willing to assit even fro free, they need to find them. and soon. they are the positive fresh energy which the commitee needs.
Improving our infrastructure has a big role to play in this as well. Cannot have people jumping up in Roseau and their foot go in a pot hole and it sprain. Our sense of professionalism in Dominica is also poor.
Dominica Carnival will never get to higher heights when we continue to have the same people running the show year after year. We need new blood with new ideas instead of the same old faces with the same old antiquated ideas.The people at the helm are senior citizens well past their prime.Get rid of the Carnival Csars and bring in some talented younger blood with BOLD and innovative ideas to take carnival to the next level.The returning COC boss is well pat his prime
IS CDC UNDER DFC?
TOO MANY COMMITTEES
We have to make up our minds. Let Carnival continue as a feast of the people, by the people and for the people or turn it into a commercial enterprise. In case of the former, we should follow our traditions as are and stick to the historical time schedule. In case of the latter let private enterprise take over, run and finance it! I don’t see the point of tax payers’ money having to be forked out for the financial benefit of private enterprise – if they stand to make money from this, let them pay for staging it! They can then also decide what the timing of this event should be.Bear in mind that carnival in Dominica is not unique and we have to compete with all our neighbours. Guadeloupe & Martinique, as well as Trinidad, Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire….and not to forget Brazil have their carnival at the same time as ours! The “carnivals” in Barbados (Crop Over), Antigua, St. Vincent and Grenada take place in the tourist “off season” during the summer, anywhere between June & August. It is not as if tourists do not have a choice. I guess we would like both to continue our tradition and maximise the financial benefits but that may forever remain a mutual conundrum.
The DFC need to examine what is it that the players in others countries do to attrack their nationals and foreigners to their shores for festivals such as carnival, one suggestion is that i think we should market carnival like we do for the creol festival. In an effort to increase the local attendance lets up the prizes to the contestants for the Miss Dominica show as well as the Calypso show to $200,000.00, the expectation would be to attract women whose intellectual capacity would be to the expected level, the calypso show will be of a higher standard and as a result their will be a greater crowd attendance and that too could attract our locals as well as overseas dominicans, i must say the Government needs to play a greater role in terms of financial contribution, i dont think no one will fault the government for doing so, despite the fact that Trinidad do have gretaer resources in terms of people and finance the government $100million dollar investment into carnival 2011 resulted in a $4billion injection into the economy, this is a yard stick that we iught to follow but we must put air access in place, i think we have one year for that planning and i think the authorities needs to examine this
Great post..very Good…very insighful…love it.
There were far fewer tourists visible on the streets this year. Maybe we can use some of the space at the old post office museum to display , at least photos of the festivities.