The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Junkanoo Carnival band owners still face thousands of dollars in losses, their Association president said yesterday, as the farce surrounding the event deepened with its original dates being restored.

Dario Tirelli, the Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival Band Owners Association’s (BCBOA) president, said organisers had misjudged the fallout from the abrupt two-week postponement.

He told Tribune Business that Association members have now been left to try and salvage their relationships with revellers, who had expressed outrage at the announcement earlier this week that Carnival had been postponed to May 18-20, forcing many having to cancel their travel plans.

“I don’t think they realised the repercussions from the international market, and also the local market,” Mr Tirelli said of the Bahamas National Festival Commission.

“I think that they gambled and they lost. They didn’t realise the magnitude of the support from the locals, and the backlash from the international persons. They never realised how many people were coming.

“If they had a relationship with the bands, they would have had a good understanding of how many international revellers were supposed to come.”

Mr Tirelli added: “It was shocking to them that we did almost 2,000 last year. I’m trying to figure how to go back to these people. Some have already cursed us out, asking what kind of ‘banana republic’ we have here.

“Some have cancelled and some say that there are still coming, but we have to throw an event for them. You’re looking at almost 3,000-4,000 people that were scheduled to come and already have spent thousands of dollars.

“Now they are trying to salvage this thing to our detriment. Some bands went and locked down hotel, airfare and transportation as part of the deal. We’re looking at thousands and thousands of dollars that we are going to lose.”

Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival is now back to its original dates. The Nassau leg is once again scheduled for May 4-6, and the Grand Bahama leg, which had been scrapped earlier this week back for April 28-29.

The BNFC on Tuesday explained that it made the “difficult decision” to postpone Junkanoo Carnival due to conflicts with the general election timetable. The announcement, though, triggered a major backlash from the local and international community.

It was this, and the potential fall-out for the Bahamas at it relates to its international reputation among travellers and tourists, that appears to have caused an abrupt re-think and reversal on Junkanoo Carnival.

Visitors coming to this nation specifically for Junkanoo Carnival would have had to cancel, costing them thousands of dollars in hotel and air fares, with the Bahamas having to endure angry social media reviews and postings read by persons across the globe.

The two-week postponement to May 18-20 also threatened to cost Carnival bands, those affiliated with them and service providers “millions” in lost sales and cancellations.

This, in turn, would have undermined a key Government rationale for holding Carnival and subsidising it to the tune of almost $20 million over its first two years - creating jobs and small business entrepreneurial opportunities, and unleashing the ‘cultural economy’.

Now, the constant ‘back and forth’ over the Junkanoo Carnival dates threatens to exacerbate and deepen a self-inflicted debacle, with the uncertainty threatening to further damage the event’s brand and that of the wider Bahamas.