The crowd at Carnival in Grand Bahama last year.
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Do you think the Government is right to cancel and postpone Carnival?
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123 total votes.
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
WITH stakeholders and participants still reeling from the news that Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival has been delayed, festival organisers announced on Tuesday that the event will also drop its Grand Bahama events.
The Grand Bahama installment was originally set for April 21 and 22, and the pre-event included the Music Masters competition. The loss of the major event will likely be considered a setback for the island's struggling economy and high unemployment.
The Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC) explained that it made the "difficult decision" to postpone the event due to conflicts with the general election timetable in a press statement sent to the media, and posted to the event's Facebook account on Tuesday.
"Despite the event being only a month away," the BNFC statement read, "the Commission took the difficult decision to change the date in order to provide the highest level of participation, safety and production quality in light of a recently announced general election timetable that conflicts with the original event dates.
The statement continued: "The 2017 event will also be consolidated to one island on one weekend. The Music Masters semi-finals will take place in Nassau instead of Grand Bahama. While the Commission will miss celebrating Bahamian music, culture and vibes with the Grand Bahama community, it looks forward to resuming its two-island format in 2018 with Grand Bahama continuing to host the semi finals of the song competition.
It added: "The Commission assures the public that the event will still deliver three non-stop nights of cultural activities and performances with a top lineup of Bahamian musicians and regional artists; and revellers will still storm the streets on Saturday afternoon (May 20) for Road Fever. The Commission regrets any inconvenience caused to participants as a result of the change in date and encourages fans of Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival to prepare for a weekend of pure music, culture and vibes from Thursday to Saturday, May 18-20.
Comments
DDK 7 years ago
Looks like they're punishing GB while they still can.
JohnDoes 7 years ago
GREAT NEWS! Stop the partying time to get serious! Get this debt under control, get the GDP to deficit percentile lower and within reasonable range, then we ALL could start to think about festivals and partying. Im tired of this government. Priorities MIX right up, Ancient, out dated initiatives and thinking is what has Pindling doing somersaults in his grave. Dated MP's its time to retire and enjoy life. Leave the Politics to those much younger and deserving.
Hogfish 7 years ago
the p-hell-p does sure seem to hate Freeport.
een long now my brothers and sisters.
PKMShack 7 years ago
conflict with election, they know the date eeh, please let the voters know
ThisIsOurs 7 years ago
This confirms my suspicion. Carnival was in trouble financially. Nothing to do with any election. I'm going to bet that they have already blown the 5 million budget (taking into account the PM's statement about pissing away money).. The reason given by Paul Major makes no sense. My belief, carnival could not be executed on budget and on time. They HAD to postpone it.
cmiller 7 years ago
Who is going to hide the VAT money from these thieves when the House is dissolved????
DDK 7 years ago
There elves?
sheeprunner12 7 years ago
God works in mysterious ways ................ one Carnival dead, the other is on life support ....... eeeeeen lonnnnnnnnng nowwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!
Alex_Charles 7 years ago
now watch as Grand Bahama re-elects their PLP MP's
John 7 years ago
Every thing Perry Christie tries to do recently seems to back fire on him. The PLP generals were bragging since last year how they had the IAAF relays and beach soccer and Junkanoo Carnival all lined up to take place just before election so 'dey could sweep every seat.' So how comes there is a conflict now? I think it's because the PLP are finding out how many people will not vote for them because of carnival and the web shops and crime and vat and unemployment. Some sombering words from a young man. " They blame every thing what wrong in the country on us, the young people. But there are no (good) jobs for young men especially. When you don't work you have no money and when you don't have money you can't take care of your responsibility. Then you get bored. You start to feel useless. Unwanted. Some of us who have children cannot love them like we supposed to because we don't have nothing to put in their hand. No food to give them. Then your girl start checking som one else cause she don't want to be with no broke dude. After that you just don't want to do nothing anymore. You stop looking for a job. Your friends stop hailing you up. Like you lock down. The world ain't supposed to be like that.
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