The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

SEVERAL vendors who insisted yesterday that Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival was the “biggest financial disappointment” of their lives have accused the Festival Commission of “unfair” and “preferential treatment”.

The claims came after it was announced that certain vendors may be reimbursed for their losses during the event.

Chairman of the Bahamas National Festival Commission Paul Major told The Tribune on Tuesday that 30 to 40 vendors who were at the outer extremities of the carnival site would “most likely” be refunded the $450 stall rental fee. Mr Major added that some consideration would also be given to the loss of perishable food items due to low volumes of customers.

This comes with an exception, which has angered the vendors.

According to Cherisse Lewis, despite providing photographic evidence to the commission of wasted goods and low volumes of customers, officials have said the zone where she was set up will not be compensated.

Ms Lewis was stationed in zone three selling all natural fruit/vegetable juices with the hopes of seeing substantial profits from the $4,000 she spent to prepare for the three-day event. Ms Lewis said the commission told vendors to ready themselves for around 80,000 to 100,000 visitors to the site over the three-day event.

The funds, she said, were gathered after taking out a personal loan from the bank to assist her mother with an upcoming surgery, emptying her bank account and using every cent of her salary that she received the day before.

“I went and I got a personal loan,” Ms Lewis explained. “It wasn’t directly for the carnival. It was for my mother who is supposed to have a surgery on June 18.

“But after this came about, I said, ‘you know what I am going to take this money and I am going to invest it so we could turn this money over.’ I also had asue money. Carnival was on Thursday, I got paid on Wednesday and every Jesus dime I took out of my account from my pay that week. My rent is due and I can’t pay it. I don’t know where the money will come from.

“Whatever we had it is gone,” she added. “How are you now going to come and say you are giving to zone one, two and five? So what happened to three?”

During the entire event she said she made only $430. This was because on Thursday night vendors were told to be in place at 10.30am despite the event being scheduled to begin later that evening, Ms Lewis said. When it kicked off, her stall never got its first customers until around 9.30pm, who only wanted to purchase two bottles of water. On Friday night, Ms Lewis added that the site never saw any activity as everyone gathered later in the night for the mega concert on Clifford Park.

After realising the first night was a flop, Ms Lewis said she placed calls to two commission officials. One promised to visit the site to assess the area, but never came, she said. Another promised to call another official for her, but that did not yield any results.

On Monday, she said, several vendors visited the Festival Commission’s office and spoke to Roscoe Dames, the CEO of the Bahamas National Festival Commission. However, the meeting had not resulted in any resolution to date, she said.

When contacted yesterday, Mr Dames referred The Tribune to Mr Major saying he was responsible for making any official statements about reimbursing vendors. Several calls were placed to him but he did not respond up to press time.

Another vendor said she became extremely depressed about the way the event turned out for her, as she is unemployed.

Ingrid Forbes said she spent a total of $2,000 to buy the supplies she would need. She claimed to only pocket $25 from the event.

“I literally took to my bed after it happened,” she told The Tribune. “I am unemployed. I cannot afford to lose $2,000.”

Alva Thompson, another vendor, said after she realised that sales at the event would be extremely poor on Thursday night, she opted not to cook anymore food and tried to salvage the remaining unused items.

Mrs Thompson is Ms Lewis’ mother. They shared a stall at the cultural village.

She said: “I didn’t really spend that much because I didn’t have that much confidence in it but I said, ‘well ok I’ll purchase a few things and sell.’ I don’t mind my losses because I could sell it elsewhere because I was doing conch fritters and chicken wings. But after I saw nothing was making (money) I went and purchased ice and I put everything on ice and I refused to prepare anything else because I was wasting gas and oil.”

The vendors said they have also written to Prime Minister Perry Christie, but have not received a response.

In their letter to Mr Christie, the vendors argue that the events were poorly scheduled, the volume of visitors to the site as promised was not fulfilled and that the area shut down on Friday night during the mega concert. They insisted that only a select group of vendors were accommodated at Clifford Park.

Mr Major has previously said he expected carnival to inject $50m to $60m in the local economy.