Posted by: travadmin on Nov 17, 2003 – 10:42 PM
newsandinfo Entertainment consultant in the Ministry of Tourism Fred Ferguson said Sunday that officials ought to promote more Junkanoo parades throughout the year to beef up tourism business for the country.
Mr. Ferguson was one of many officials who traveled to Miami for a half-time tribute to the Miami Dolphins during a game between the team and the Baltimore Ravens.
A contingent of 200-plus members of various Junkanoo groups performed during the halftime show, receiving a warm reception from thousands of fans.
“I just hope that we have more [Junkanoo presentations] at home so that the tourists can see them when they get there,” Mr. Ferguson said.
“The issue that we face is that we always invite them to come and observe Junkanoo, but we don’t have it available for them. If we can now wake up and continue to see the response that we get from the folks and make it more accessible when they come to The Bahamas then I think we have a winning combination.”
Two primary methods of making Junkanoo more accessible to spectators visiting The Bahamas, he suggested, would be to hold parades on various occasions throughout the year or alternatively to extend the end-of-year festival.
“Even if Junkanoo is held just once a year it should take place on more than just Boxing Day and New Year’s Day – maybe we could look at making it a week of celebration in a way to encourage the visitor to be a part of the event almost the same way that Carnival does in Trinidad,” he said.
“The way we have it set up now it’s difficult for the visitor to be a part of it because even the regular Bahamian has a difficulty being a part of the parade unless he is part of a Junkanoo group, but the power of Junkanoo is so strong that we need to look at and focus on the strength that we have here in The Bahamas.”
Reporting on tentative plans to expand Junkanoo celebrations even further, Mr. Ferguson said the annual Junkanoo in June event is being considered to serve as the platform for a half-year preparation for the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day parades.
He said the programme could also help to breathe new life into the cultural expression.
“We’ve had the difficulty in The Bahamas where Junkanoo music has become stagnant and every year we’re hearing the exact same songs,” Mr. Ferguson said.
“Whenever the groups start to fall down they tend to fall back on the same old traditional songs so we’re working on a new programme and we’re going to make an announcement very shortly where we’re going to make Junkanoo in June the central point and the kickoff for the Junkanoo song of the year competition,” he added.
Junkanoo groups would then have six months to produce and practice the new songs leading up to the parades, Mr. Ferguson said.
Also attending the historic presentation were tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe and Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Neville Wisdom.
Despite the ambitious plans to expand Junkanoo celebrations and use the increased publicity to promote tourist travel to The Bahamas, the expansion would have to be tempered by the ability to provide adequate facilities and infrastructure, said Minister Wilchcombe.
Pointing out that the Junkanoo tribute to the Miami Dolphins was part of a larger campaign to attract new business like athletic and religious travel to The Bahamas, Mr. Wilchcombe said tourism officials would attempt to initiate the programme by inviting organisations to hold more sports related conferences and workshops in The Bahamas.
“The NFL holds meetings so does the major league baseball [association] and the NBA,” he said.
“Insofar as spring training and preparing for the various sports seasons it’s going to be rather difficult because of a lack of facilities,” Minister Wilchcombe said.
He said the country is “years away” from being able to put in place those facilities.
Describing the spirited Junkanoo performance as a “red letter day” for The Bahamas and Bahamian culture, Minister Wisdom also expressed optimism that the prominent display of Junkanoo and other Bahamian art forms would help to boost athletic and other travel to The Bahamas.
By Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal