Well, the blockbuster lineup for the 2008 Music Festival was announced today after great hype and pop and sizzle:
"Bermuda Regiment soldiers are standing guard over the highly sought-after list of performers until the official announcement is made Tuesday."
Let's get the obvious out of the way, it's a great lineup. I'll be there most nights as I have almost every year after I worked on the very first JazFest the year I graduated from University.
However (there's always a however)...I'm going to be the killjoy for a minute if I may.
For years now I have been asking us to admit that this event is not a tourism event in any real sense (see here, here and here), and this was confirmed with the announcement today that "Bermudians" (residents or Bermudians? I'm not sure) will have a 24 hour head start over tourists to buy tickets.
Got that? Tickets to our marquee tourism event go on sale to tourists a day after locals clean it out.
So, on the upside, at least we've dispensed with the pretense that the event is aimed at tourists.
Now, this brings me to my longstanding complaint about the way the Department of Tourism is being used by Dr. Brown since he took it over.
The Tourism budget is increasingly being used to entertain locals (Music Festival, Movies on the Beach), market and networking for Dr. Brown himself (Mets promotion, Miami Heat promotion) and throw parties (The Love Festival, THE Foundation) for the Premier and his friends, those he wants to be his friends and those he wants to pander to (Faith Based Tourism).
As it stands now, taxpayers are basically throwing themselves a big expensive party, but paying full ticket price to watch... and if a few tourists make it then that's a bonus.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't believe it's the job of Governments to throw concerts once a year. And with this year's lineup the event must now be massively more expensive.
But back to the Music Festival, I can't believe that the event is anywhere close to breaking even, and I don't recall seeing any study on the economic value of it to our economy.
After 10-plus years of running this event it should now be standing on its own and self-sustaining, but I don't think it is, or even remotely close to it.
Sure, Bermuda needs events like these, but if our promotions aren't geared at the right audience then they're not serving their purpose. And surely the idea of taxpayers underwriting these events is to spur a broader economic gain for the island, but I'm not sure that's the case.
I'd love to see some numbers put out on how many tourists it attracts, what they spend while on island, how much money goes out to the overseas promoters/artists. I bet the number will blow people's minds.
But, it does make for a great political headline, an annual feel good event, and a chance for the politicians to schmooze and be photographed with the beautiful people.
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy