Numbers show interest in Vincymas growing – CDC

Chairman of the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC), Ricky Adams says Vincymas is growing and he wants Vincentians to not fight the CDC and government as Vincymas is a “we thing”.

“At the end of it, when I leave the stage and when anybody else leaves the stage, it’s still Vincymas, it’s still Vincentians telling the world that we have a strong culture; we have a warmth and a energy of a people that we have to sell to the world…let’s work together to push this thing called Vincymas,” Adams said at the CDC’s prize giving ceremony on Monday.

Adams said the numbers show that Vincymas is a growing festival, as this year, more people came from abroad to take part in festival and more locals showed interest.

“In the masquerade segment, we noticed that there were a number of new masqueraders on the streets this year and that is really powerful for us.

“The way I recognised that, I was standing in Victoria Park and most of the masqueraders coming off stage didn’t know whether to turn left or right when exiting the park… and that says that this was the first time that they were crossing the stage in Victoria Park,” Adams said.

He said this year also saw an explosion of new and young faces taking part in the different competitions such as Soca Monarch and EVO Ragga.

He commended organizers of the private events that took place during the carnival season, adding that those events racked up $4 million in sales.

While acknowledging that the private events were not part of the CDC, he said they were valuable to the economy of SVG.

Plans are already in place for Vincymas 2024, and materials such as flyers are ready, Adams said.

“Promotions for Vincymas 24 have already begun…we had a presence in Barbados, we had a presence in Grenada, we had a presence at Vincy Day in New York [on August 20]…. As the time goes by, we really going to be pushing 2024, ‘cause I think we have set a wonderful platform on which to launch Vincymas for 2024.”

During Monday’s ceremony, prize money totalling $692,000 was handed out to winners of the different competitions during Vincymas 2023.

Minister of Tourism and Culture Carlos James during his address at the ceremony promised that the creative industry will no longer be ignored as a $10 million investment has been secured specifically for the ‘creative economy’.

“We have to look at investing a lot more within the sector…the honourable Prime Minister took the lead in negotiating US$10 million; it is the largest single project for the creative sector here in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” James said.

He added that three cultural hubs will be constructed at Bellevue, Petit Bordel and Troumaca respectively.

The Petit Bordel cultural hub will feature a recording studio that will be named after 12-time soca monarch Delroy ‘Fireman’ Hooper, in acknowledgement of the artiste’s home town.

James said after the completion of the new container port in Kingstown, the current port will be transformed into a major cultural hub.