The Cost of Carnival to Joe Public - Part 1

I recall tackling that subject last year as part of our review on luciancarnival.com, but apparently the issue has raised its ugly head once again. Several of the tent leaders and other top brass making the rounds on the early morning calypso talk-show circuit, have gone to great lengths explaining how difficult it is for them to break even. They spoke of high overhead costs, dwindling sponsorship support and the ‘freeness or complimentary tickets mentality’ as hampering their ability to find themselves in the black as opposed to the red, financially speaking. On one show a comparison was even made stating that “we, -Joe Public- find money to go to shows featuring foreign artistes, but found it difficult to put out $20 or $30 for a local calypso show.”

Whereas I fully agree with the points raised by those tent leaders, the long and short of the matter is that carnival is costly for all…meaning both organizers and we the public. I must however plead the case of Joe Public. It is a fact that Joe Public loves carnival, especially the music it generates. That segment of Joe Public that attend calypso shows is indeed a special breed and they must be considered and appreciated. For them it’s not a choice as to whether they will go to calypso tents or not, like an addiction it’s a given …you will find them there. Now let’s crunch some figures.

There are no less than six calypso tents with each tent holding no less than five outings. Let’s price each outing conservatively at $25 a show; that’s 25x6x5 = $750. Then there is no way you can attend a calypso show and don’t imbibe…yes, trips to the watering hole outside. Sometimes I wonder if it’s not a setup by the tents in that once certain calypsonians come on – you know it’s intermission or drinks time. Throughout the length of the two month season and with the prices of things these days, we’ll allocate $50 per show giving us $ 1250.00. Then lets add that to our first figure of $750.00 giving us $2000.00 …try to keep up now. We are not even counting the cost of the fabulous chicken and bakes.

Then let’s factor in the semi-finals and finals at $40 a piece, giving us a grand total of $2080.00. We have not even mentioned some of the ancillary events surrounding carnival like Party Monarch, Groovy and Power Soca shows and don’t forget Queen Show.

Now tell me, what does Joe Public get for that money and are we getting ‘value for money’ or ‘bang for our buck.’ I’ll address that in part two.

John-e-bar out.