The Government of Saint Lucia remains committed to keeping Saint Lucian culture alive. It has allocated $1.1 million to Saint Lucia Carnival 2014.

This will be the third consecutive year that Saint Lucia Carnival will benefit from a $1.1 million subvention.

 

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Heritage and Creative Industries, Mr. Donavan Williams, said the festival was fortunate enough not to have its subvention reduced.

 

“We are in a period of severe belt-tightening, and many of the programs within the budget have experienced cuts,” he said, adding that although the Carnival budget has not been cut, stringent decision-making and a bit of creativity will be necessary in order to execute the program successfully. He said that in many respects carnival is a business and should be treated as such.

 

Chairman of the Carnival Planning and Management Agency (CPMA), Lyndon Arnold, said the subvention will not cover the carnival prize-monies. He estimated, based on the previous year’s budget of $1.3 million, that the $1.1 million subvention will go mainly towards event production.

 

“The CPMA [from the onset], looked at how to reduce production costs given the financial challenges that we are faced with. We believe that we can bring production costs down from $1.3 million, but that is as far as the contribution that we are receiving will take us.”

 

Arnold said that options for scaling down operations and breaking even are harsh financial realities that stakeholders must face.