It appears this year Dominica’s signature event, the World Creole Music Festival (WCMF), may be hosted on a very tight budget.
At a press conference last week, Chief Executive Officer of the Discover Dominica Authority (DDA), Colin Piper, spoke of ‘limited resources’ and the prudent use of the budget.
“In terms of the budget, we are living in an environment where there are limited resources and we have been given the same budget from last year and what we have tried to do is be a little more judicious in terms of how we assign and allocate that budget,” he explained.
He noted that there are certain expenses which gobble up a huge chunk of the budget allocated to the WCMF.
“You have venue preparation, you have travel, you have accommodation and you have performance fees and so you can take from one to add to the other,” Piper stated. “The first thing that we must deal with is the bands and their performances because we know the artistes make the festival, so we are working with what we have been given.”
Piper said after the festival is over, the DDA will present a report in terms of revenue expenditure.
Last week the official media launch of the festival was postponed with officials saying they were being prudent by dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s.
The 2015 edition of the WCMF runs from October 30 to November 1.
When am coming home with visitors all you have this crap going on! Just fix up and don’t embarrass ALL OF US WHO AR BRINGING FIRST TIMERS with us – on share man!!
Sorry people!
ALL the below comments are CRAP!
What the DDA and the government needs is professional marketing, to create and promote this event and market it correctly… and EXCITE potential visitors…WITH TANGIBLE RESULTS!.
Perhaps it will happen soon. Who knows?
Colin, you and the DDA please get some marketing smarts!
Really, after 15 years one would think that the DDA would get it right! NOT!
You mean after 19 years…almost two decades!
I think we must hold on to the festival. However, the committee has to be comfortable enough to know and understand that it is quite fine to make adjustments when needed. If the budget prevents the team from putting on a full show limit the number of bands or number of nights, or focus on local artists or upcoming regional artists with one or 2 at the maximum big names. Don’t be afraid to be flexible to save this wonderful event. This is a time of family, togetherness, food, fetes and the list go on.
Also, ask for volunteers to donate their times especially those with expertise in certain area – this is a major cost saving and can be used by those volunteers on their resumes. Maybe you all can start doing fundraisers leading up to the event – an event each month in a different constituency to cover some of the operating costs.
Let’s be creative to ensure that we save this event! We can do this…
The results and or outcome of the festival wlil continue to be the same and is likely to get worse until things are done differently. The festival is a national event and it is thee only time of year when the economy gets a boost.Why not inject more resources towards bringing people to the festival. The line up is not the reason why people come or dont come to Dominica. There are several factors that need to be considered and an out of the box approach need to be adopted but then again a dead battery is dead no matter how much you recharge the battery- essentially people/administrators need to go in order to bring revolutionary thinking.
Primarily patrons make the festival and serious efforts should go towards getting people on the island. The truth is 6 months ago the very same administrators were able to bring in 1500 people and foreign artists into Dominica for voting day. Where are the “friendly governments” to help bring 2000 Dominicans home
I agree with you Fed-up, but folks remember the year it had all the rain and the Sunday events had to cancel, I remember clearly that Cross Fire and other bands had to play. I am sure that they were paid in advance, can the Festival Commission tell us what happen to that “pay out money”or did they give the money back to the commission? I’m asking because they have never been back to play
when u have pple in dfc volehing ticket n drinks dor there bonjean… n even selling tickets on the side to benefit their own pocket… n when you have all big shot in government getting free ticket for themselves n all their women dem (the people who can afford tickets due to their financial stability)….OFCOURSE WE HAVE TO BE ON A TIGHT BUDGET. WE MUST COOLAY. St Lucia waiting impatiently for us to crumble so they can take over… n frankly i believe they will do much better job
What the hell! No profit? I was there last year, year before and the previous yes. For the past 3 years, the turn out was very good.
If they didn’t make a profit, Piper needs to throw in the towel; if he refuses, give him the boot. Over 4,500 attended the Friday and Saturday
night, cost of a ticket per night is $125, multiply $125 time 9,000 attendees for 2 nights. I estimated 4.500 per night for Fri and Satday night
but there were more ppl than that, not including Sunday and no profit! We are not dumb, some money went somewhere, in someone’s or
some ppl pocket. After 15 years, if the WCMF cannot sustain itself, scrap it. Put tax payers money into something that
will benefit Dominicans. Build an entertainment square with restaurants and bars, and keep a event once a month and y’all will see profit with 2 yrs on the ROI, believe me..
Is this a profitable event? Where are the profits from prior years? This has been going on for 15 years. If it cannot be done profitably, then stop the whole thing. You can conduct an unprofitable event for the sake of the public a few times, but doing that over and over again makes no sense.
Every year the organizers say them same thing… We’re ensuring that we stay within budget etc but after the event and it’s time to declare whether it was profitable or not…. It’s always a loss since tickets have to be given to each minister plus their wife or mistress and children. Not forgetting the prominent business men in Dominixa. VIP tickets for them and their entire crew. This needs to stop… I can u deer stand giving each person a ticket but not 3 – 5 complimentary tickets… But then again if I myself get a ticket from the Roseau Parl Rep I taking it ka mem lol lol
The best thing that could happen to the Creole Festival is for government to gradually reduce the amount of money it provides for the event. As long as the festival continues to receive the bulk of its operating funds from the people of Dominica, the organizers will have no incentive to get creative.
After 18 years of operation, the event has not grown in stature and the format has not changed one bit. In short, the WCMF has not lived up to its promise as a world class event. The time has come for us to take a good look at this annual event and ask whether we, the people of Dominica are getting value for the resources that we allocate to it.
The one thing that still giving DA it little rank she remain thème puppet messing with it
The Government is killing the event.
Yes Mr. Piper,
It is sad that we can make a proper profit from a festival of this magnitude. It is obvious that something is going wrong. But you guys really act like its a legit business however all those who are profiting from the same lame artistes who come back year after year should stop. The persons choosing the artistes should be changed and some people should get their hands out of the cookie jar once and for all!!!
This is a very simple fix. IT is clear that after 15 plus years of running a festival that we can’t manage 15 bands at the festival . it is too costly and the chances of repeated bands/artists is very high. my solution is a 2 night festival instead of 3. get rid of one night either friday or sunday depending on how the holiday falls and u work with 10 bands/artist instead of 15.
Sensible thinking batman! Let’s do it and cut our cloth according to our means.
Also I think most of the VIPs don’t pay for tickets
AMEN!
How come things so bad if layba working no wonder tony in Guadeloupe….
Have these positions been filled at the D.D.A/DFA – Marketing manager, Festival/Events Coordinator? I ask as we have not heard from these persons as yet and only from the CEO.
Another way to reduce the budget is to cut costs and I would look hard at reducing the cost of services provided free to VIP’s, most of whom can afford to cover their own expenses. If that largesse is not seen to be cut it will give a bad signal in these hard times.
Well said!! The poor and struggling are being asked to foot the bill for the festival while the rich, influencial and others who can afford line up for VIP tickets with free entry and free food. Really absurd!!!
What the hell is VIP anyway and they even getting services for free? People want better seats, better services, they pay more money. Stop paying for too many foreign artist who are not related to
“Creole” and have more of our local artists perform. And, instead of having 10 persons perform per night , have less persons perform with more songs. Just putting my 2 cents