Calypso Monarch Adrian AC Clarke was hoping the Soca Rumble competition could have been staged this year, but he had to call it quits and cut his losses.
Explaining the challenges he experienced while attempting to produce the show, Clarke and the Ocean Gem Productions Inc. team first announced that the contest was set to be held on July 31, 2023.
However, they scrapped it after a free CARICOM Day concert was announced. It featured some of the same artistes slated to perform at Soca Rumble. Despite further efforts to get the show on the road, some roadblocks have arisen.
“In 2024, I decided I wasn’t going to do it because things were getting in the way as far as raising the finances. When I spoke to the person who was investing, they found that things, in their opinion, were looking a little too political and they didn’t want to be part of that. They would assist me but they weren’t willing to put that name and their finances at that magnitude behind it,” he said.
Clarke told the DAILY NATION he and his team were again optimistic that they would have been able to raise the finances in time for a 2025 debut.
While he again attracted investment from some, he said more would have been needed to produce a high-quality event.
“We decided we could do it this year. Things were looking quite great. I was going to have the biggest first prize ever. The second place would have been a vehicle, which is normally the top prize, so you might wonder what the first place would have been.
“I had another friend of mine who was willing to invest. He was investing $600 000. I was offered a vehicle by that same person, but I can’t just do a show with a vehicle. Where we were heading, the budget was fairly high as far as we were looking at,” he explained.
The entertainer said they also approached the Government about some assistance.
“I was told there was We Gatherin’ and CARIFESTA and with those happening, support was going to be almost at zero. I have written and got my people to write and send proposals to get support from the Government. I didn’t get a response.
“So if I didn’t get a response by March or April, how am I going to do a show that can happen in July? How am I going to get that done? I can’t risk it [because] in the end, I’m the only one that’s losing,” he said.
The last Soca Monarch was held in 2019 at the National Botanical Gardens in Waterford, St Michael.
In announcing numerous changes to the Crop Over Festival that year, the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) said there would be some cost-cutting measures, one of which was combining the Sweet Soca and Party Monarch into a new Soca Monarch final.
Post-COVID there has been no Soca Monarch and many Barbadians, including artistes, have been calling for its return. Resources, however, have been spent on supporting artistes’ marketing and promotional activities, overseas performances and other developmental activities.
During the second episode of the NATION’s Insights And Highlights online programme which was posted on Sunday, chief executive officer of the NCF Carol Roberts reminded the public why they made the decision.
“There is nothing wrong with a competition as an event; it can create excitement, but as a development tool it is not what it used to be.
“Soca artistes were saying one-on-one, ‘It’s real expensive to enter the soca competition’. Secondly, the competition is losing its value as that catalyst for additional work across the region, across the globe,” she said.
Last month, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Officer Senator Dr Shantal Munro-Knight said they would be willing to support any private promoter interested in putting on the production.
“That [Soca Monarch] is something that perhaps, again, we can look at in the future, but what we understand is that there was private interest in doing a Soca Monarch and our intent then is to put support behind that.
“It isn’t everything that the NCF itself has to do, so if there’s private interest in producing a Soca Monarch, then the NCF would lend support and would partner for that,” she said.
Clarke, however, questioned what type of support.
“When Dr Shantal Munro-Knight mentioned support, my question is, what kind? Are you going to give me tents? Decking? Where are you going to give me? Because I want money and the little team that I work with, we want to put on a quality show . . . and you need money to put on a proper show,” he said.
He reflected on the losses he incurred in 2023 after he had to pay out of pocket for many of the services that were provided.
“What I would say is that there was over $900 000 behind us. I paid out, personally, another roughly
$70 000. That money went to people who did stuff. I said, ‘The show isn’t coming off’ but I had to pay them something.”
Clarke added that although he has received an offer to recoup the costs, it has not been forthcoming.
“I have not gotten it back yet. Will I? I don’t know. I was offered assistance, a ‘we will assist you’, but I ain’t see it yet. I don’t want to seem like a beggar or a humbug, so I’ve come to the point that I just stopped. This is 2025; if it didn’t happen in two years, I don’t see it happening [this year]. As far as I’m concerned, I just consider it a loss,” he said.
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