Promoters of the 18th Annual World Creole Music Festival (WCMF), are describing as a “great success” a regional tour promoting the event.
The tour began in the French Antilles and climaxed last week in St Lucia.
Marketing Executive of WCMF, Leroy “Wadix” Charles who was speaking at a weekly press conference organized by the Dominica Festivals Committee (DFC) on Tuesday, said the response from the people of Trinidad and St Lucia was overwhelming.
“In Trinidad was very interesting because we did some work in Trinidad in the early days of the festival and it was like a rebirth in Trinidad,” Charles said. “We had several live morning television shows, myself and Mr. Colin Piper. What we tried to explain to the Trinidadians, and those who viewed, is the wonder destination and the attributes of our beautiful destination and very important the Nature Island Challenge.”
Charles revealed that St Lucian sees the WCMF as a “St Lucian Festival.”
“They actually own it and claim it, every single store, every single place you went the World Creole Music Festival was like the anthem. They respect the festival,” he noted. “We were fortunate to have done over 17 full length interviews in St Lucia to include print, television and radio and that endorses the overwhelming support for the festival.”
Charles stated St. Lucian fans are excited about the line-up this year, especially since Midnight Groovers is set to perform.
“You would swear that the Midnight Groovers was from St Lucia. They could give you the whole history of Midnight Groovers, they could tell you some of the hits of Midnight Groovers and they are so excited about Dominica,” he noted.
He lamented that the legendary group is not embraced fully in Dominica, although it has been on the musical scene for almost four decades.
“No other band globally can replicate the sound of the Midnight Groovers…it is something that we have in Dominica and we should cherish it,” he stated.
Charles also called on young musicians to embrace the Midnight Groovers and “Try to emulate the longevity and the durability of the brothers.”
Wadix u are killing the festival
WCMF take off the African line up. Simple solution. We could hardly control the case of chikungunya is not the Ebola virus we can contain. We donot have the financial resources, neither the proper health care facility, we do not even have an Ebola protocol.
a press conference just yesterday and no journalist asked questions about the african acts in relation to ebola? Did wadix even talk about that concern? it is as if they are not taking this thing seriously.
It is all well and good that the promotion of the festival was/is a success. But come, don’t you see with this show taking place the price will be greater than a few thousand dollars that will be spent on paying off the performers’ contracts and cancelling the show? Can we afford to have hundreds of persons get exposed if this EBOLA virus that may or may not hitch a ride on one of these performers? Is the Gov’t and organizers that naïve to think that the risk is minimal? Or is it just greed that is driving the stubbornness of our people?
It is expected that the promoter will indicate that his tour was a success. Thousands of dollars have been spent on such promotions. However, the actual success will be realised only when he has really convinced patrons to attend the festival and that will be seen by the numbers coming in to participate in the festival. Lets see what happens.
Please be careful with the African bands that are coming for the festival with this EBOLA disease that is killing in weeks we don’t have the experience and medical treatment to keep our people safe. Pay them their contract and cancel them PREVENTION is the key word here.
Wadix thank you for that piece.I grew up listenting to midnight groovers and our people have no respect and dont know what blessing and great history behind the Mark brothers.Every St Lucian i come in contact with is midnight groovers.Sad that our schools do not teach history about our grats in Dominica.I wont be visiting this year,but hats of to Chubby and his brother also the bass man guitarist and young drummer,be proud guys.One day you all will get that respect.ONE LOVE TO THE GREAT BAND MIDNIGHT GROOVERS.