Marketing Assistant for the 17th Edition of the World Creole Music Festival (WCMF) Wadix Charles is calling on the public to help promote and own the festival since it is unique to Dominica.
Speaking at the final press conference before the event on Wednesday, Charles reminded patrons that this type of festival is unique to the island since nowhere else in the world has a festival of that nature.
“We are urging the announcers, the Djs and other patrons be exemplified in what you do for Dominica. We expect to hear Independence music and we expect to hear a lot of the artists that are carded to perform here for the WCMF,” he said. “It is important, we own this festival because it belongs to Dominica it is an opportunity for economic stimulation during that period of time. Just try once again to imagine that period of time before the advent of the WCMF and you would have an idea of the economic stimulation.”
Furthermore, he made an appeal to Dominicans to be on their best behavior during that period of time.
“Let us try to keep the city where the festival is being held as clean as possible. Let us try to be on our best behavior at the festival a record of absolutely no incidents over the past sixteen years. Let us continue to endorse that and we want to urge patrons to continue to invite their friends and saturate the perimeter of the Windsor Park stadium.”
Meanwhile as the date of the festival approaches, Events Director of the Dominica Festival Committee (DFC), Nathalie Clarke, has reassured the public that preparations are well on the way.
On Wednesday Clarke said “we have some interesting new supporting acts this year. We have decided this year that all the rising bands and all the young rising artistes will form part of the supporting casts on the three nights of pulsating rhythms. “
She added further that this year a full technical rehearsal will be done on Wednesday evening because there will be four dominant things this year.
“There will be the LED walls which we are introducing to the park, as well as the on screens on both sides of the stage, there will be features between all the intermissions, we have introduced this year the DJs, so on Friday night we will have Dj Mystic powered by Heineken, on Saturday night we have Dj Flip, on Sunday night we will have Dj Smooth and they will be working along with our masters of ceremony Val Cuffy and Wadix Charles,” she explained.
The Afri Culture Stilt walkers and the Sakiss Lapo Kabwit will also welcome patrons to the park.
The WCMF is scheduled for October 25th- October 27th, 2013 at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium.
all this fet is just nonsense sodom just stupid
Hello and good evening my people. Well Mr Charles I would like to own it but I would rather come home and enjoy the festival. We can’t even get an adjoining flight in Puerto Rico to come home so owning the festival isn’t doing anything for me. This is the biggest festival our country hold which also goes into our independence but they can’t get Liat or some other airline to put more flights to cover this festival period. Some of our people have tunnel vision and they don’t cover every base. It’s not to late to have Liat put an additional flight from Puerto Rico to Dominica for the festival .
its amazing that to this day, many Dominicans have not grasped the fact that the term “Creole” does not solely speak of the Creole language. it actually refers to a mix, a blend, a collaboration, a “coubouyon” if i were to speak in our local terms. therefore, the WCMF is not limited to creole bands or bands which have a french/patois background. In fact, the inclusion of reggae and African Hip-Hop (such as the artist Bracket)among other foreign genres of music is well within the name of the festival. the only thing that constantly bothers me is the fact that so much act-recycling is done the festival is losing its appeal yearly. its baffling that Wadix is calling for Dominicans to own this thing just one week before when we all know that if they are to depend on “Dominica” to propel this WCMF, we would be failing from the get-go. something has to be done in terms of the selection of artists.
On a related note, Rihanna will be performing in Bdos on the 1st of November (quite close to WCMF). a number of persons from the surrounding islands and i do not mean Martinique and Guadeloupe (which are the WCMFs top patron islands) will support because Rihanna is a well known figure and will pull persons out of their island. Keep the local acts; keep the french/patois/creole acts; but infuse international names and get the name of WCMF ring in the ears of the “world”
Trying to sound intelligent but loosing sight of a reality and objective.World Creole – to us it’s Francophonic and should center on that. Not hip hop, Reggae and your Rihanna nonesense. Let’s propagate our culture and heritage. African bands , Louisiana, Caribbean all french connection. It’s not just popularity, it’s our Heritage. Go figure.
People broke, things are hard, we owned it by making that 250$ or 120$ plus drinks saaaaacrifice, trust me.
And don’t foreget all those VIP’s, who get a free ticket. That has to be paid for also.
we have to first sense the feeling of ownership
its true so long the creole/independence season open and i am still hearing rap and pop music being played. so many local songs to be played. for that period only local some regional music should be played. and de festival is good people. stop complain if u not goin to the fest. and if u goin do enjoy urself.
do like Barbados, and ban all ‘foreign’ music, which has nothing to do with independence spirit, from the radio stations… barbados do it for crop over season…
Dominica is full of persons who are good at talking. Bdos is aggresive about their product (crop over). but we are laissez faire and will not go the lengths to ensure that the WCMF flourishes.
imagine now more Jamaican artiste coming down. I have never heard of groovers or ck ect in a Jamaican music festival.
Barbados ban dancehall not foreign Trini Soca and so forth. That is waste of time,
The call is good but honestly this festival lacks a world appeal period..
you can’t have a world event and your target base is french and a few caribbean islands and be contented that’s it…
folks need to start thinking Big to make any impact.
when you look at the acts on the bill, at least 90% of them are weekend regulars or played gigs down either by local promoters or the WCMF events before..
when you take a page out of the other festivals, they are bigger,better and brighter than WCMF have a world wide audience..in terms of acts and patrons….
Dominica will “NEVER” get out of the slumber based on keeping things “In the box” and being proud…that’s the next level of ignorance which does not breath growth and vitality in terms of progressive methods…
the ruling regime needs to contribute more towards the festival…the cash they flow out for brides at catching a vote would be better channelled towards are “HIGH END PRODUCT”, the millions from the passport sales could surely book a world class act to headline the WCMF…
WCMF…is just a recycling body, not being able to expand it’s wing span!
well said
I am not having a go at you. It would help if you could recommend a list of actions or bands/groups/individuals they could invite to improve the event. I think that would be more constructive. Don’t forget It is called “World Creole…” and the budget is limited.
You right we should own it but the name WORLD CREOLE MUSIC that what we should be having not reggae love songs but what the name really says.
What nonsense is that. Don’t we own it already? Every time they make a loss we have to pay for it through our taxes. Instead the call should be for the festival to be made profitable. If they can’t, fire the people who run it as would happen in any normal business.