Vincymas and the media

VINCYMAS HAS come and gone. Despite the many shortcomings, the festival must be given a passing grade given the context in which it was planned and executed. Carnival makers usually have a lead time of a full year to put everything in place, but not so in 2022, given the pandemic. But whatever the artforms lacked in quality, the revellers, though fewer in number, made up with energy.

There were a few troubling situations during the festival that the parties concerned need to work through, well ahead of Vincymas 2023. Among these were equity for media houses in relation to coverage of the festival and equitable coverage of the festival by the media.

A few days before the start of the festival, the Carnival Development Corporation informed that the only media house that would be allowed to live stream performances from the Victoria Park was VC3, except in the case of radio stations, which were allowed to carry audio and commentary of the shows live on their various platforms. In fact, not only were other media houses prohibited from live streaming, severe restrictions were placed on them even in terms of what could be recorded for post-show publication.

How could these conditions, which amount to a lockout, be fair to private sector media houses, many of whom are solely or largely dependent on revenue earned from interaction with online audiences? What was the purpose of the media houses even being invited to provide coverage of the show if they were,
by virtue of the restrictions placed on them, prevented from earning revenue from said coverage? Why doesn’t VC3, which is bank rolled by the deep pockets of the National Lotteries Authority, want to compete with struggling media outlets for audience share and revenue?

Compare this with the National Broadcasting Corporation, formerly 705 Radio, which was once the only radio station in the country.Today, NBC Radio, though subsidized by the Government, must compete for Vincymas advertising dollars with private sector radio stations that also carried live broadcasts from Victoria Park.What’s so special about VC3?

This brings us to the situation with calypsonian Alvin ‘Zion-I’ Dennie, one of the finalists in the Calypso Monarch segment of PanKaiMas, held on July 3 at the Victoria Park.We are curious to learn why did VC3 decide, that of all 12 calypsonians participating in that competition, not to broadcast Zion-I’s performance of his popular number ‘Hypocrites’? The song had been cleared by the Carnival Development Corporation and was broadcast by the radio stations, including the State-owned NBC Radio.Why no coverage on VC3? How could that be fair to Zion-I and the viewing audiences who had paid to watch the show? Come on VC3, to whom much is given, much is expected.