Hold off holiday!

Agrofest organizers are calling on whichever party wins the 2013 general election on February 21 not to call a bank holiday on the following day, which is the opening day of the event.
While it has been a tradition in Barbados to declare the day after Election Day a bank holiday, organizers have argued that such an action this time around would disadvantage thousands of schoolchildren hoping to tour the exhibition.
Agrofest coordinator Theodore Fraser, who made this call during a meeting for sponsors in Queen’s Park yesterday, told the DAILY NATION that it was the norm for Agrofest to commit the morning of its opening day to schoolchildren.
“Friday morning is the day when the schools use the opportunity to bring down the students to not only visit the exhibition but also do projects based on what they would have seen at the exhibition, and I think it is part of the school syllabus now.
“So we want to appeal to whichever party wins the election to defer from the temptation of calling a bank holiday on the Friday, which would really take away that opportunity from those students,” said Fraser. (AH)