WITH?CROP?OVER?2012 now comfortably or otherwise at an end, we expect there will be the usual review by the festival stakeholders. Some observers will say there is need for a detailed post-mortem by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) and its partners.
To the credit of the NCF and stakeholders, the festival controversies have dwindled over the years; but new irritations have cropped up.
There was the case of satisfying the requirements of several agencies simultaneously to hold a public fete, the police department and Town &?Country Planning among them – which was in law a long time ago, but not enforced until suddenly two years ago.
The fete promoters have to some extent come to grips with these requirements, but venues for the more daring and innovative acts make an issue yet to be fully resolved. At the heart of it is the discomfort suffered by residents from the excessive Crop Over noise of partying – an inconvenience that is not unreasonably protested against.
But outstanding among the irritations this year was the moving of the Pic-O-De-Crop Finals from Kensington Oval to the Gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex. It was not exactly the fault of anyone, even if the decision was on the surface questionable. The circumstance was actually spurred by an act of God.
Tropical Storm Ernesto would cause us this discomfiture. As we acknowledged before, we were not unmindful of the mantra “the show must go on”, and so there was ostensibly some merit in Minister of Culture Stephen Lashley’s declaration of the contingency plan if Friday fortnight’s rainy weather was not amenable to a Kensington Oval Pic-O-De-Crop Finals show.
But that would have been perfect had it not been for the incapacity of the Gym to accommodate a Kensington Oval crowd of the kind for such a national calypso contest, and to provide appropriate logistics for seating the different categories of ticket holder.
In the end there was a measure of confusion and disappointment. Some patrons were uncomfortably seated; some not seated at all – on their feet for all of the performances; others couldn’t get to see all the show they had paid for. Nothing really can compensate for the last.
We learnt that at least one calypsonian had a problem switching from Kensington. Ironically, he would go on to win himself the monarchy. And he would praise the execution of the NCF effort later after his doubt.
Said Red Plastic Bag: “I wasn’t in favour of rushing to have it, rather than waiting to take it somewhere else, or maybe at Kensington [Oval] still. But it came off. And I’m happy that it came off without any real serious hitches and that we were able to get a result. I’m happy that the result was in my favour.”That there was a result, favourable or not, is beyond contention. What is not is that there were no “real serious hitches”. Serious review for the good of the festival’s future is called for.
