Officials of the T&T Music Festival Association are appealing to the corporate sector to help ensure that this year’s 31st edition of the biennial event takes place as planned over the next three weeks.
The festival which began on Monday was scheduled to take place at Queen’s Hall in St Ann’s, Port-of-Spain; Naparima Bowl, San Fernando; and Shaw Park Cultural Centre, Tobago, through March 12, under the patronage of Culture and Arts Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly.
The production which catered to children and amateur adults was still in need of almost $250,000.
Victor Prescod, chairman of the association, disclosed the executive committee’s dilemma at Sunday’s launch which took the form of a concert held at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.
Even though Scotiabank has signed as the Diamond sponsor for the event and the Ministry of Education, Cher-Mere, Imagine Media, the Tobago House of Assembly and the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts were also on board, the organising committee was still struggling to cover its operational expenses.
Prescod lauded the decision of Scotiabank (through the Scotiabank Foundation) to return as a Diamond sponsor and expressed delight that the bank’s contribution did not take the form of a cash injection alone.
“We are appealing to you to not only publicise the festival over the next three weeks. We have already cut the festival (programme). We have already cut our budget to the bone. If we get any further we will be cutting into the tendons and crippling the association even further. But we are appealing to you not just to publicise the festival, but to help financially. We need more corporate sponsors. We have been searching for persons to come on board to assist. Looking at the numbers right now, we are looking at a deficit of $200,000 and if we can find 1,000 persons to contribute $100 we would have raised $100,000,” he said.
Prescod continued, “The music festival is on, but we have no money to advertise. We cannot put a single ad in the newspaper. We literally have no money. I have a treasurer who has threatened to resign because she cannot operate like this. And, we have young people to serve. We have amateur musicians to serve.”
Citing that the festival groomed so many of the nation’s young people, he lamented the difficulty corporate T&T found when asked to invest in the production.