National Cultural Foundation CEO Calls for Increased Support from Businesses for Crop Over Festival

Chief executive officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Carol Roberts, wants some businesses which get the most spin-off from Crop Over to pump more into the festival.

She said while the NCF had a budget, it was not limitless.

“Sponsors have been generous to us, but you’ve also got to look at how the world is evolving. We’re not past COVID because the impacts and the effects are still reverberating around the entire globe.

“In the business world, models have changed and a sponsor that would give you $100 000 is now saying, ‘Well, can you work with, believe it or not, $7 500?’ Because their bottom lines have also changed and their business model has also changed.”

She said if sponsors could not spend with the NCF, they could throw support behind other stakeholders.

“I have said up front to sponsors, ‘We’re about to launch the festival. If you’ve only got 25 cents to spend and you don’t think you can get it from us, spend it with a band, or an event promoter . . . just spend it in the festival’ because it will redound to everybody as time goes on.”

Roberts said some of those who benefited from the Sweetest Summer Festival should step up.

Point to consider

“Let’s say you are a seamstress and you are sewing skirts and tops for dancers. When is your biggest pay day opportunity? It’s during Crop Over. I think a lot of times people don’t take that into consideration. People who sell disposable containers, cups and plates and all the rest. When is their biggest window of opportunity to earn?” she asked, touching on items that were sold out in stores, bars which sold out on fully booked cruises and work going to companies that supply equipment and manpower to various events.

She said the Crop Over Festival had to be “fiscally prudent” to the NCF.

“We come up with the plan for Crop Over and we budget it based on our market rates. We budget it mindful of the fact that we are not producing

these events under the same constraints as private promoters, whose show is a success only if it makes a profit. Our remit is a bit different. We want to spread the work as wide as possible so NCF events will have quite a number of artistes.

“We are charged with producing, among other festivals, this festival every year. Our mandate is, one, to drive economic activity nationally; two, to showcase areas of creative expression and cultural endeavour, and three, to provide an earning opportunity for the sector. So I challenge anyone to tell me that any other event producer hires more artistes throughout the season than the NCF. We are the biggest employer for a reason, because outside of Crop Over and all of the spin-off activities, there is no other employment opportunity as large as the Crop Over Festival.”

Roberts said the NCF had a long list “of things that we wanted to do for the 50th anniversary . . . but then you will have to put on your sensible hat and spend what you have without breaking the bank. Because to go all out to be extremely lavish and all the rest is to incur another kind of criticism, probably from some of the same people”.

She said she was not against sitting down at the table to have conversations.

“Come to a table and sit down. It’s not the Carol Roberts show, it’s not the NCF show, it’s not even the Government show. It’s the people’s festival. If you are talking about a festival that’s contributing . . . over $50 million to $80 million every year, isn’t it worth having those conversations?” (NS)