Culture minister gets $574K of ‘treasure’ for Pirates Week
(CNS): Culture Minister Dwayne Seymour has secured well over half a million dollars to spend on this year’s Pirates Week Festival, breathing new life into what had become a lacklustre event in recent years. A lack of government funding and a lack of interest in supporting it from local sponsors had taken a toll on the long-running festival, which began back in 1977 to attract visitors to Cayman during the low season.
“The significance of Pirates Week to our economy, culture, and heritage cannot be overstated,” Seymour stated during a briefing on Wednesday. “The government is proud to reinforce its commitment to this vital aspect of our identity by providing the necessary funding to ensure a successful event. I am delighted to announce that we have approved a budget of $574,000 for this year’s festival, which will help deliver a high-quality experience that provides substantial cultural and economic benefits.”
The money will be allocated to a variety of activities, including organising District Days, heritage demonstrations, historical re-enactments, and securing exciting performances from both local and international artists. The budget will cover infrastructure, such as stages, sound systems, lighting, and, of course, the highly anticipated fireworks and drone show.
Starting on Friday, 8 November, under the theme of “Setting Sail Through Time,” the festival will span three weeks. It will have more activities than in recent years, including some new additions such as a bar crawl along Seafarers Way on opening night in George Town and a Pirates Exhibition at the museum on Saturday. Gimistory, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, will become part of the festival, with the outdoor storytelling taking place in the evenings of each of the district days.
The District Days start on 11 November in George Town, where communities will return to showcasing their unique cultural offerings and go head-to-head in the District Fish Fry and Heritage display competitions. The Pirate Invasion will go off as usual on Saturday, 9 November, in the afternoon at Hog Sty Bay against the backdrop of the Food and Music Festival.
In the evening, Sky Elements will roll out a drone show combining cutting-edge technology with storytelling. The annual firework display will be on 16 November as the finale on Grand Cayman before the festival heads to the Sister Islands.
This year’s performances will be from local stars Swanky Kitchen Band and international headliners, including Fab 5 on 9 November and Soca-Monarch Bunji Garlin on 16 November.
See here for a full list of activities.
Anyone who would like to be a vendor at this year’s event should email pirateswees@gov.ky. The deadline for applications is Friday 25 October.
See the full announcement and festival launch on CIGTV here.
See the festival commercial here.
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Category: Art & Entertainment, Business, Local News, Tourism
I would like to see what percentage of that $574k has been used on promoting the Pirates Week festival overseas.
Can the Hon. Minister show us a preliminary report that shows interest and or take up of flights, rental cars, restaurant bookings etc? Of course he can solicit the very knowledge team at the DoT to get this info.
It makes no sense that this festival is under Ministry of Culture alone. 🤦♀️ Pirates Week should have never been moved from Ministry of Tourism! It should be returned to the National Events and Promotions Team of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and supplemented by budgets from Culture and Heritage Ministries.
This large scale event could be divided into three areas where each Ministry crosses over and manages different aspects of the festival.
Culture can a manage the downtown events, landing, boat race, fireworks, party/stage performances; Heritage can manage the District Days and Tourism can manage the promotions and Global marketing and data collection.
And we can then also have the support of the Ministries of health and Home affairs assist with the medical / fire assistance having a presence at all events, to ensure public safety.
Divide and conquer, place knowledgeable people in roles and set them on their way! Divide the roles and divide the budget.
And then maybe we could enjoy the festival as an organized and family fun event! That is also bring revenue to the island to make back that $574k that is taken from the public purse to plan a party.
Anonymous says:
21/10/2024 at 11:01 pm
A simple solution how Caymanians can help in Cuba. Let family in Cuba to stay for more than 3 months. people in Cuba are suffering under Mafia rule. You can’t send a generator. People are getting desperate and will just steal from their neighbours. Government entities allow services only for a bribe. The older people need help from families outside of the country. Cuban/ Caymanian people here can help them here. Please help Cubans by stay longer without the beauracy. They can stay for only 3 months?
—————————————————————
A Generational Caymanian AKA Caymanian As Of Right.
How forgotable some people in our country are at this moment.
Cayman has helped Cubans/Cuban Refugees to decades. Millions and Millions of dollars have been spent thus far on housing, feeding, clothing, provision of healthcare etc on Cubans who come to our shores BY CHOICE. Most to date are very ungrateful of this hsitorical fact. However, these people are quite to make demands on the CI Gov’t that Caymanians have not been able to do.
Cubans are no different from any other group of people, who come to our country regardless of the economic situation in their own countries, therefore should not make demands on our country but instead on their own government.
Since you are so bent on making demands I then suggest that you make your demands on your Cuban COHORTS that live in Florida to help you all. Maybe DeSantis and Trump will be your best bet getting your relatives over to Florida since Cubans have made it a little Cuba and think Republicans are the best thing for them since slice bread. However, I won’t advise you to hold your breathe too long.
A simple solution how Caymanians can help in Cuba. Let family in Cuba to stay for more than 3 months. people in Cuba are suffering under Mafia rule. You can’t send a generator. People are getting desperate and will just steal from their neighbours. Government entities allow services only for a bribe. The older people need help from families outside of the country. Cuban/ Caymanian people here can help them here. Please help Cubans by stay longer without the beauracy. They can stay for only 3 months?
Call Trump or DeSantis to help you all since your Latin Cohorts have their heads so far up the Republican Representatives behinds.
Oh well, Here we go again. Total.waste of money just like these 19 clowns who gwt voted in every 4 years. I ask this question, where are our Caymanians? Everywhere I go, all I see are foreigners on work permits.Cayman is overrun with foreigners. When will someone in government stand up.along with my Caymanians and say enough is enough. Caymanians can’t afford a house a piece of land, food, rent etc. I for one won’t be wasting my precious vote for anyone ever again. Am done voting. If you see and earth quake and tidal wave, sunami hit these islands we are done. Our beautifull 7 Mile Beach is now almost gone. The love of Money is the root of all evil, enough said.
$100,000 for a 10 minute Drones show. waste!!
After the collapse of the power supply system, the Cuban government received offers of assistance from Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Barbados..
Neither Compass nor CNS even mention about the blackout in Cuba and that Hurricane Oscar slammed into Cuba on Sunday.
Oscar, classified as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of nearly 80 mph (130km/h), made landfall in the eastern province of Guantanamo, near the city of Baracoa.
The richest Cuban neighbor are The Cayman Islands. What a shame!
Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly led a sizeable delegation around the region last week [as of 22/07/2024] to take aid to islands hit by Hurricane Beryl earlier this month.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2024/07/jocc-takes-1m-in-aid-and-cash-to-islands-hit-by-beryl/
You don’t get rewarded unless you hand out “Doctorate” degrees.
Disgusting – she would n on t wait to have Cayman accessed before she ran off with our cash and supplies. Now Rafael hit and where is the help locally or …
Andrew’s holiness is singing about their wealth and all the millionaires they have in Jamacia – he needs to come and pick up his people!!! We cannot afford them!!!
“The one commonality that we share is that we are all [but Cubans🇨🇺] human, ” O’Connor-Connolly said. “Storms do not know faces, names or countries.”
Can someone tell me why culture and heritage is not under the same ministry?
Oh yes now they can “double waste” money. Like how they did for the Emancipation Celebrations.
I wonder who had the bright idea to have an event by invitation only at Pedro Castle to kick off the Emancipation celebrations?
If you add up all the private donor dollars generously raised at a year’s worth of charity galas in support of various needful issues underfunded by government, they disappear into this grotesque undefined Pirate’s Week expenditure budget. The very event launched by Rotary to raise money for the needful. A culture of perverse unaccountable expenditure is not one to be celebrated, even if it lines up with the regrettable policy history of recent times.
I think you may be talking about being created by the Rotary. From what I understand Pirates Week was created by Jim Bodden’s ExCo in 1977.
While people live in rental cars and makeshift tents on our beaches.
Let them eat cake
CaymanKind at its best – bar crawl. This is what we want to promote.
Meantime the neighboring Cuba is in a total blackout. Where is the infamous Cayman Kind? Or it is only applied selectively? Not a pip in the local media. I bet many residents would help to mitigate the consequences. We are talking about living breathing and suffering people, the Cayman Islands neighbor.
We are currently doing our part by hosting 100+ ungrateful refugees. There will soon be more, and we’ll host them too.
“Nothing is easier than spending public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.” – Calvin Coolidge
500k lol. nice Christmas present for someone
That photo is cringeworthy. Pathetic amateur dramatics. Don’t they have anything better to do?
Well, for at least one of them 7:25 the answer is no.
All priorities are wrong in Cayman im convinced
Nothing beats a little celebration of raping and pillaging.
#godfearingnation
Brilliant. You know your prisons falling down right?
Then use some of the consultants $10Million fees to fix it.
Is every comment you make about the prison and the Consultant fees? You insist on posting absolutely nonsense numbers that you just make up in your head.
Why don’t you go into the prisons at Fairbanks and Northward and see for yourself what they are like. If you think the conditions you find are appropriate for staff to do the work needed to support offender rehabilitation, keep the public and prisoners safe, and comply with international Prison standards and human rights; and that it is any for place to house any human being, then you need to be sent there to live for a while – i can assure you your narrow minded and naive view would change.
5.30 That’s the whole point..!
I wouldn’t want to go there BECAUSE it is an unpleasant and uncomfortable facility.!
Criminals should be made to fear incarceration , and hopefully think on the consequences of their actions.
That’s one way to look at it. Another would be to think that i we treat people like animals, despite their criminality, then how will we expect them to behave when they get out? Loss of freedom is the punishment, not the conditions they live in. We are not a third world country – or would you prefer we were?
Through all the waffle garbage…
‘It will have more activities than in recent years, including some new additions such as a bar crawl along Seafarers Way on opening night in George Town’
There’s Cayman’s own pirates 2024 politicians! More assaults, cranes, sniffing….?
DUI dodge-a-crane and bribe-a-cop events? We should recall there were never any investigations or charges for First Lady Seymour curfew breaches.
Cayman is the land of corruption
don’t forget the general debauchery. Historic, at least recent history.
whats in hell Is a Bar Crawl ?
Try save $50 for a cab John John.
🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂🫏🌕
$674,950.00
Does the funds for this event get audited and specifics published to the public to show where the cash was spent and how much? just curious on the accountability and transparency aspect
😂 Oh you. Tell me that you’re being sarcastic.
Our money, spent on forgettable nonsense and with that, our opportunity cost for so many other foregone higher ranking neglected social priorities. This is how they demonstrate to us that they are deeply unqualified for their responsibilities. Voters need to believe them when they show us. Again and again…
$like the $56,000 port authority party fireworks display..?
The only pirates in the Cayman Islands are the ones charging sky high retail prices for goods
and the politicians pillaging the people and natural environment.
Never seen so much whining and complaining. You sound like people who need their nappies changed.
Truth.
Do you drive a Honda FIT?
How many SUVs for Jon Jon to mash up is that?
Can we get some assurances that no one who crashes in to a light pole and/or a stationary piece of heavy equipment during this festive period will be tested for alcohol consumption? Would make it so much more fun and maybe even bearable.
There goes the educational system, again.
Such a waste of money. Inject that into more beneficial and meaningful things that will help our hurting people.
MORE $100,000 Drone SHows.. when our people are hungry and illiterate due to systemic failures!!?!
Who is benefitting from these 10 minute long SHows?
That’s the $100,000 question, now isn’t it. Better be careful or you might find drones coming for your. 🧐
Cronies
Who does he think he is… the Port Authority .?
Jon-Jon and culture in the same sentence just cracks me up.
That’s enough for like 10 plates of turtle meat.
I hear that just over $500K of that is for full moon donkey rides by John-John.
Arrrrr to da barrrrr!
I just can’t believe that the words “ Culture Minister” apply to someone who has less culture than Yogurt.
LOLOLOLOLOL!!