JUNKANOO groups are set for a major boost in funding this year, after the government made allocations that quadruple the amount of money that the groups received in previous years, according to officials.
In addition, 25 Junkanoo parades will be held as the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture rolled out a schedule that presents three seasons of cultural activities from November 2015 to February 2016.
Minister of Youth, Sports & Culture Dr Daniel Johnson announced that his ministry made a “serious assessment” of its funding and resources in order to provide even more support for their cultural programmes. This led to the major increase for individual Junkanoo groups, while the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival event will receive a slight reduction in funding.
The decision was then made to categorise Bahamian culture into three seasons and create activities throughout those seasons that would add up to events happening each month of the year.
“The idea of creating the seasons will give tourists who visit this country a chance to participate and engage and encounter this great Bahamian culture (any time of the year),” said Mr Johnson, according to a press release.
The second season of culture will be known as the “Road to Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival” and will run from March to June each year.
The third season of culture, the Rake n’ Scrape and Goombay festival, will span the months of July through October, and will highlight a packed schedule of activities.
“What we want to see is an equal share of resources and sponsorship being spread across the cultural genres, so every cultural component of Bahamian life gets its piece of the pie,” said Dr Johnson, adding that this sparks development, creating a stimulus within the culture industry.
“Within that stimulus, we know what we saw this year with Junkanoo Carnival was massive employment. We had thousands of people engaged and hundreds directly employed. We know if we were to expand this idea, we will see that this cultural creative industry can become one of the lead employers in the entire country.”
Comments
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 5 months ago
What ever happened to "carnival is just a word". Nobody in their right mind can say what was manifested is anything but Trinidad culture. Now, there is nothing wrong with Trinidad culture, but it should not be subsidized by the government and promoted as "Bahamian"
“Within that stimulus, we know what we saw this year with Junkanoo Carnival was massive employment. We had thousands of people engaged and hundreds directly employed.
This makes no sense. This was not employment. The government simply increased the Social Services budget and doled out money free of charge. Somebody in cabinet must be making millions off this carnival, because it makes no sense culturally or financially. It could have made some sense but they decided to go down the non-sense road.
TruePeople 8 years, 5 months ago
Temporary Employment is little to clap yaself on that back for fa real....
I'm happy there's alteast some push to promote our culture, and fest's through out the year sound good.... but why is 'Carnival' still like the central thing... there is a whole season that is "road to carnival" .... that part i don't get.
I think organizers need to be clear and honest. Is this really a promotion of Bahamian culture, or is it just some stereotype caricature of "west Indian" culture aimed at snagging tourist dollars.
Those are two very different things and sadly i'm pretty sure it's just about tourist money.... not really about culture
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