How could they say they expected to gross over $4 million but would end up a few hundred thousand in the red, although the star was not charging one red cent?
Believe it or not, what you saw come together at Kensington Oval over the past three weeks to climax with a production the likes never before seen in Barbados will end up not only up in the red, but several times redder than predicted.
I am willing to bet anybody that when the numbers are finally crunched, the gap between the concert ending in the black and the red could be in the vicinity of $3 million.
This is the reality of a business about which few people on the outside have a clue in terms of the true cost of staging any production, whether a quiet evening of dance for 400 in the Frank Collymore Hall or a loud concert for 25 000 at Kensington Oval.
By coincidence, it was at the same Oval that I first became fully aware of this fact, at the end of one of the previously most high-profile and expensive shows staged there: the great Stevie Wonder in concert.
It was the end of my worst nightmare in entertainment. The show was to have started at 8 p.m. but that was about the time that Stevie’s jet was taking off from Bermuda for Barbados. So that around midnight we were hustling him, his management, band and equipment through the airport, and then to the Oval where he was eventually led onto the stage just before 1 a.m.
Unfortunately, by that time, the majority of the thousands who had milled around from as early as sunset had gone home convinced that Stevie was a no-show.
The public’s inference that I was talking bare No. 2 earlier this year when I said that Reggae On The Hill stood to end up several thousand dollars in the red by being forced to be postponed by one day was but another example.
What I can use as an example of where the money goes is value added tax (VAT) payable. Multiply the minimum $4 million take by 17.5 per cent and see if the amount going into the treasury from the concert is not $700 000.
And if for the little 10 To 10 Crop Over fete catering to 6 000 party animals in the Carlisle car park, the bill for police services was over $30 000,
I don’t believe I would be wrong in assessing that VAT and the cost for the vastly superior police presence in and around Kensington Oval would have gobbled up the first $1 million.
I could go on with a long list of costs for things like that monster stage, airfare for well over 100, hotel accommodation, ground transportation, private security, event management, catering, admission tickets and wristbands, cleaning and so on. Just take it from me . . . .
Al Gilkes heads a public relations firm. Email [email protected]
