Marigot: --- Several persons within the community are questioning how the 350,000 Euros was spent on organizing the Caribbean Festival since several persons were not paid for the services granted.
Reliable sources have informed SMN News that even the boat that brought in the troops from Guadeloupe had to create confusion for their monies, while the person who made the costumes for the local troops threatened not to deliver the costume for lack of payments. The source said the local organizers who signed the contract to organize the event are even more disappointed when they saw what the overseas promoter delivered for the three days of activities. It is further understood that the organizers wanted 500,000 Euros from the Collectivity including permission for ten days of Carnival but that was denied by the President of the COM.
One local promoter on the French side of the island said that he could not believe the elected officials allowed such a thing to happen especially now that St. Martin is affected by the economic gloom. He said he promoted several shows both on the Dutch and the French side and almost every night they are sold while the Caribbean Festival was a complete lost. “One would expect when someone invests that amount of money they would at least make back the money.”
The local promoter said the artists that were chosen for the three nights are mostly for older people and not today’s generation. “The youths today do not know anything about Steel Pulse, when organizing events like these the organizers have to know what crowd they are catering for.” Furthermore, most of the people that attended the shows had free passes, and by the last two nights the entrance fee had to be removed.
The set up of the entire Alberic Richards Stadium was horrible. An example was given on how the booths were the set up. The booths were far away from the stage. It is understood that the booth holders did not make any money either because of how far away they were and mostly because the booths were actually backing the stage. Preparing and dealing with the organizers was a disaster since they were not willing to listen to anyone another participant who is still waiting for his payment said.
There are also locals who make beautiful costumes on the French side and they were not contracted. The Collectivity it is said contributed some 155,000 Euros while other entities such as the Tourist Office and Semsamar came up with the rest of the monies. “None of this money stayed on St. Martin and all we know the man that came in to organize does not have a good reputation in Martinique and Guadeloupe yet he was brought in to organize the three day activities. This promoter it is understood is going home with over 60,000 Euros in his pockets” Another local artist said that while several troops on St. Martin participates in the annual Carnival they never got 10,000 prize money.
The first failure they said was to have the organizers hold the event during the July 14 activities. The organizers promised to have fifteen troops on July 14th but at the end of the day they only had seven.
