SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY) - After a tumultuous year filled with challenges it has never had to face, the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) closed the 53rd edition of Carnival resilient and thankful that it was able to reach the finish line, buoyed by its President’s proclamation that “this can never happen again, this is not who we are.”
Reflecting on a festival that looked and felt very different, SCDF President Edwardo Radjouki was referring to the division “Carnival people” by one individual to please that individual’s personal feelings. He said Carnival on St. Maarten means togetherness of people, of culture, in peace and unity, celebrated in one iconic location. This, he continued, is something that has been protected, developed and nurtured for five decades.
“Carnival Bacchanal is one thing, but willfully trying to destroy your national festival by undermining the SCDF and dividing our people, is something else altogether. This is not who we are in Carnival. We just cannot let this happen again.”
Radjouki said that Carnival 2024 will go down in history as the first time the foundation was unsure if it could successfully pull off the festival. However, with the timely intervention of the former Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion and his Ministry along with the St. Maarten Tourist Bureau and with support from MP Cloyd Marlin, the foundation managed to cover some of its vital operational costs at a crucial point in the festival and pushed forward. Radjouki explained that MP Marlin and former Minister Irion went above and beyond to listen, understand and act to help Carnival. “In fact to save Carnival,” Radjouki said.
The emergency financial assistance was necessary after the former Minister of Justice Anna Richardson granted permits for competing events to Carnival for the first time ever. Richardson did this without consulting the SCDF to understand the consequences of that action. It didn’t take long for those consequences to manifest.
Richardson’s move not only split people, it triggered a cascade of Carnival cancellations and sponsor reductions which rendered all budgetary plans of the SCDF moot before Carnival 2024 even opened. According to Radjouki, the aforementioned resulted in a revenue loss that was impossible to recover from.
“We got to the half-way point and then everything began to get really tight. We could not meet obligations and all the plans we had to take care of standing bills were useless. We adjusted every single day. The board of the SCDF is mentally and physically drained. But thankfully we finally found someone in government who listened and understood and did something. We are very grateful to Minister Irion and his team who performed miracles,” Radjouki said.
He said the SCDF will open its registration process as usual for all areas of Carnival and proceed as normal towards Carnival 2025 which will run from April 21 to May 5. Easter falls very late on the calendar in 2025 hence the late start to Carnival as well.
Despite the challenges, Radjouki reflected on Carnival 2024 with pride in witnessing his dream of more local content taking root in the festival. He said the foundation welcomes having international events as part of Carnival because that too has become part of the product. However, he noted that the cultural sections of the parades, the Caribbean pageant that highlights Caribbean culture, more inclusion of local bands in shows, the continued re-birth of youth events in Carnival are all good signs for the future of Carnival.
“We shouldn’t look past what is happening in this regard either. Yes, there are areas we will look at and fix what needs to be fixed. But we like the re-focused efforts on culture. Together with our schools and the Culture Department we will work on making sure that growth continues,” he said.
In terms of avoiding a repeat of 2024, Radjouki said: “The past two years since coming out of the pandemic has been hell for us, and most of it brought on by outside forces. But we believe with genuine cooperation between stakeholders, including the government, the full potential of Carnival can be unleashed. We have a plan to avoid a repeat of 2024. Now all we need is collaboration and communication. We just want to be heard finally,” he said.
The SCDF President thanked all corporate sponsor that stuck with Carnival despite its challenges, Carnival Village booth holders who were unique as ever, the promoters who still staged there shows despite immense risk, the general public for coming out to support the local events, troupe leaders for buying-into including more culture in their troupes, the bands and DJ’s for making it to the road with very limited funding, contractors for accepting what the SCDF could provide with limited financial resources and the SCDF volunteers and board members for digging deep and being resilient in the face extreme obstacles.
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