I am a Carnival baby, I love everything about Carnival the culture atmosphere, the excitement, the anticipation for the events, shows and costumes, the pan, the music, the mas none is better than none for me it takes each aspect to make it work and work WELL. A few years ago my lovely island paradise celebrated 50 years of carnival. A friend of mine Damara Phillips created a group named the Golden Jubilee, since that was the theme to celebrate the 50th anniversary. She invited friends and they invited friends and it developed into a real one stop shop for news regarding Antigua and Barbudas' Carnival. Over the years she as asked a few friends myself included to help moderate and upkeep the group. As a collective we promote the different band launches, carnival fetes, shows events, we upload pictures of costumes, sketches anything to do with carnival we are in the midst of it. It has not always been smooth sailing and at times we have come under fire for personal commentary and have even been accused of promoting different bands and events over others. I will be the first to say I have not always been diplomatic in my commentary and for this I can apologise on my own behalf.
Most recently we have even been accused of favouritism by one particular band leader, which is tantamount to slander since some of the moderators have never ever played mas and others have no band loyalty. To everyone I say this NONE of you are better than the other. We the moderators of "THE OFFICIAL ANTIGUA CARNIVAL FACEBOOK GROUP" have never once been invited to an event as members of the social media by ANY mas troupe in the twin island state of ANTIGUA & BARBUDA and we promote you all equally. We pay money out our own pockets and go to launches and events ( none of you have ever asked us would you guys like to come, do you need press passes/ media passes) and when we cannot go to events we ask our friends to go to the events and take pictures so that we can upload them to the group thus helping YOU. We have never once been emailed information regarding launches for music or costumes. Some events have had 3 and 4 pages made in the past and we have toiled here and there finding out information checking and double checking to make sure it is correct before we send it out on your behalf. Those little catchy by lines that accompany your events......that is our brilliance. Those pictures on the carnival group days before you even decide to upgrade your website or Social media page that is all us. We the moderators of "THE OFFICIAL ANTIGUA CARNIVAL FACEBOOK GROUP" has never once been offered a discount on a costume, event ticket, launch ticket, fete ticket, after carnival party ticket or even a case of water and some corn nuts to split between us for our tireless services towards you and yours.
So to all of you please remember these words in 2011 and the FUTURE before you go ranting and raving about who is promoting whom, who is biased, and feeling like you have arrived say thanks first and then complain or act like a big shot.
We do this for the love of CARNIVAL and our COUNTRY and we do it for free.
Well put. Most citizens do need to realize that social networking is how our generation receive updates on the different activities surrounding Carnival. The newspaper is no longer a sole source of information. All it takes is one blogger or facebooker to give a bad rating and that's it for these events.
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ReplyDeleteTELL DEM!!! Honestly it truly is amazing that people look for the bad in things and start drama before even try to see the good you are doing. At the end of the day we are all Antiguans every part of carnival is a reflection of all of us regardless of who is playing mas with who or who is backing who in the carnival shows. If you want good press and fel you're not getting what you think you desserve then get a press packet together, invite people to cover your event do something more than sit and complain.
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ReplyDeleteWell said k
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