It gun be hot up at Greenland Land fill this year, not just with the smells but with the music. NCF has announced that one of the venues they were considering hosting Party Monarch 2010 was the illustrious Greenland Land fill”.

Some would say when it comes to venues this is really reaching the bottom of the barrel, or the bottom of the garbage bin, but is it? Let us explore the opportunities a “Dump” Party Monarch presents to us.

First having Party Monarch at a dump would be a unique attraction, if not for people, at least for flies.

Not only flies but maybe this new location might attract a new breed of sponsors; Party Monarch can now be sponsored by the Sanitation Department and Garbage Masters.

As title sponsors the credit would be The Garbage Masters Party Monarch Finals coming to you from Greenland Dump.
NCF can also change their slogan, “Crop Over Festival Smelly fuh Days”.
Instead of the scenic East coast it would be marketed as a scent-ic location. It ought to be a great day out for the family, Bring the family out and picnic in the dump.

When you tell a calypsonian his party music sounds like garbage it would be a compliment, you would now be saying he sounds like he is headed straight to the Dump Finals.

One of the good things is that the NCF is announcing this early so Calypsonians can make changes to their songs, Edwin can now sing “In de middle of de Dump”

I can hear RPB singing “something’s happening, and it will be stinking”
Bag’s opening line would now be “I see, people jumping with flies,

Lil Rick would sing “wukking up behind the stinking truck”

Salt would be Smell me, smell me and don’t smell me smell me and don’t smelllll me

At least Sanitation wouldn’t have to clean up after the event, because you are at the dump already! you can just walk away and leave all your Garbage there.

We are always complaining NCF doesn’t come up with good ideas and we should give them 100% credit for this one, I am sure regionally and internationally, there has never been a music event that was held in a dump,
If it works out we can look for Freddy Al and Gilbert to follow with their events, soon we will get;

Reggae in the dump, Jazz in the Dump, Soca in the Dump, the possibilities are endless….
P.Boyce will be taking advantage of it listen out for my self penned number, guaranteed to take the Party Monarch by storm entitled “Stinkaroo Ah Coming” I got my goat cologne ready!

The National Cultural foundation recently made the proclamation that they will be doing some major cutting for Crop Over, my focus is not what will be cut but more what they will NOT cut.
For some time now our Crop Over has been characterised by regional acts being brought in to lord over the climax of our festival since NCF does not believe in the capabilities of Barbadian acts.
For the last two years thousands of u.s dollars have been paid to regional and international acts to headline Cohobblopot, so I wait to see what will happen this year under these new budgetary restrictions.

Cavalcades for instance we know will be affected as that is a free event design to “jump start” Crop Over and highlight established and upcoming Bajan calypso acts.
Chances are the performer’s fees will be cut and probably the amount of these events themselves might be reduced. So Bajans who look forward to partying for free will have to brace themselves for changes.

Next up who have to worry are the calypso tents, for some years now there has been a line of thought that government should not be subsidizing the tents.
Even under better economic conditions this funding has been questioned, from last year the cultural authorities had made statements which seem to indicate tent funding might be coming to an end.

So as Crop Over fast approaches we wait to see how the budget cuts will affect our national festival, which by the way generates millions of dollars in foreign exchange for the country.
So by instigating drastic budget cuts which affect the quality of events, NCF could end up shooting themselves in the foot.
So will it be the local Bajan cultural industries which face the cuts while big money is paid to outside performers, let we wait and see…