The Virgin Islands Carnival Committee announced a fully charged Carnival schedule for the year 2000 celebration, with the possible exception of the traditional fireworks display, which could be scaled down. The fireworks display is traditionally the Carnival's grand finale.
During a news conference Wednesday, committee chairman Kenneth Blake said a new development this year is the relationship between the committee and the St. Thomas-St. John Hotel and Tourism Association.
Together, they will offer a Carnival package to the guests of participating hotels, complete with parade costumes if desired, according to Blake.
Tickets to shows and seating along the parade route are all part of the package being offered to off-island visitors.
The committee’s annual allocation from the V.I. government has been reduced this year from $300,000 to $250,000. As a result, it first looked as if Carnival 2000 would have to be scaled down, but it appears to be on the usual track. And Government House spokesman James O’Bryan Jr. said Gov. Charles W. Turnbull has pledged to use the influence of his office to assist in any way possible.
While the Carnival celebration is likely to be as big this year, it may not be as bright. It was revealed at the news conference that private sponsorship for the fireworks finale is lagging. Randolph Knight, who has financed major portions of the cost in previous years, said it will be too great a burden this year.
Knight’s message led the Carnival Committee officials to appeal to the business community to step forward and save the fireworks display, for years the grand event of the final night of the celebration. To date, the committee has only $10,000 earmarked for the fireworks show, $5,000 from Knight and $5,000 from Bellow’s International, distributors of Coor’s Light and Heineken beers. The fireworks usually cost about $50,000.
Nipping at the heels of the Carnival Committee is the Virgin Islands Daily News, which published an article Wednesday just ahead of the news conference that was sharply critical of the panel for being less than open with its financial records.
Blake, in defending the committee's refusal to release certain specific accounting information, described for reporters his most recent encounter with a Daily News reporter.
"Mr. Mortensen came here and wanted to see (canceled) checks, spreadsheets and other ordinarily private information of this organization," Blake said.
Caswill Callender, the committee's executive director, took the newspaper’s criticism more personally.
"They just had to get that story out today to make it seem that we are forced to respond to them in a news conference," he said.
Callender added that the paper has had an axe to grind with the committee for years but said he refuses to become distracted or deterred in his actions.
The month-long celebration opens with a music festival on Saturday, April 8, featuring Jamaica’s hot soca band, "Byron Lee and the Dragonaires." The event, which kicks off Carnival 2000, will begin at 8 p.m. at the Lionel Roberts Stadium.
