Celebration Time Calypso Tent states concerns over Crop Over 2011 unanswered issues
Peter Boyce of the popular Celebration Time tent is elated to hear Party Monarch will be staged at night. He concurs this gives more scope for special effects and more of a spectacle for the audience.
Many still recall when Peter Boyce broke away from Bajan comedy group Madd and how a lot of people felt he'd fall flat on his face, boy are they eating humble pie now!
However coming out of the Stakeholder consultations some very salient and pertinent queries remain unanswered:
*Calypso Tents requested a reduction in VAT during Crop Over, this has not been addressed.
*The subsidy paid to Calypso Tents by NCF to assist in operating expenses still remains reduced to 50 % despite requests for it to be increased.
*A request to increase the prize money for Calypsonians in Calypso Competitions has been ignored. It would have been thought, seeing how the increased prize money created hype in Trinidad’s Carnival that our authorities would have taken a similar action.
*It was requested that an advance be given to Calypsonians in finals of Calypso Competitions in order to assist with pre production expenses. There has been no response to this request.
The volume of matters which are still outstanding makes the stakeholders meetings which occurred appear to be a charade of consultations as many matters have not been addressed .
Also, a draft of rules of 2011 calypso competitions has not yet been circulated for input for calypso stakeholders, usually by this time that has been completed.
Celebration Time looks forward to meaningful dialouge with Government in an effort to bring an amicable settlement to the outstanding matters.
