THE EDITOR: On Carnival Friday my wife and I extracted ourselves from home, paid some of our very hard-earned money and went to our first and last Carnival 2024 outing.
It was David Rudder in Concert at Normandie Under The Trees, with advertised guest artistes Sekon Sta and Mical Teja.
The show was scheduled to start at 8 pm and finish at 11 pm. We arrived at approximately 7.15 pm. Rudder’s band was just finishing up some practice material.
A kind of singing MC came on at 7.30 pm to serenade the growing audience. He concluded at approximately 7.50.
Eight o’clock, 8.15, 8.30 and 8.45 pm came and went with no courtesy of an announcement from anyone as to why the show did not start on time.
Just after 8.45 pm the MC came on stage and introduced Sekon Sta. He went through one tune and then gave a
mea culpa for the very late start. At 8.55 pm while Sekon Sta was still on stage, Rudder’s band members came on and took their positions.
At 9.05 pm Rudder began his first set. This lasted until 9.30. A 40-minute intermission then followed.
At 10.10 pm Rudder began his second set. This went until approximately 10.50.
We were then told that Mical Teja would not be performing as he was “stuck in traffic in Chaguaramas.” The show then ended at 10.55 pm.
An advertised three-hour show ran for approximately an hour and a half. Where was the value for money in that?
It does not help matters any that a daily newspaper prominently featured Teja singing in a Calm B4 d Storm all-inclusive party in Diego Martin that same evening.
I have no problem with any artiste trying to monetise themselves as much as possible during the Carnival season.
I have a very serious problem, however, when I pay my money and a scheduled artiste does not appear. That is a clear breach of contract. It is also a massive show of unprofessionalism and disrespect to paying customers. His fee would have been included in the price of our tickets.
The show promoters and management of the artistes must take responsibility for this. Why must a manager book an artiste to perform in three or more shows in one evening in different parts of the country, knowing fully well that logistics would be a nightmare?
It is more than time that people be held accountable for this nonsense.
I strongly believe that the management of Hotel Normandie owes my wife and I some kind of refund.
LINUS F DIDIER
Mt Hope
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