OPINION: The Business of Carnival and the Cost of Missed Opportunities

By Hon. Kelvin Simon

With global uncertainty, fiscal pressures, and rising public scrutiny, Antigua and Barbuda can no longer afford a casual approach to managing its flagship cultural industry. Carnival is not just celebration—it is policy, economics, and national branding. How it is financed reflects how seriously we treat our creative economy.

Recent comments by Education, Sports and Creative Industries Minister Daryll Matthew should concern every taxpayer and creative professional. The minister acknowledged that vendors remain unpaid.

“We owe several persons,” he said, adding that payments are ongoing.

That admission raises urgent questions. The public deserves to know: What is the total Carnival budget? How many invoices remain outstanding? What percentage remains unpaid? How long have vendors been waiting?

Without numbers, timelines, and transparency, this becomes a recurring cycle—vendors complain, government admits, and payments trickle in when funds allow. That is not governance; it is improvisation with people’s livelihoods.

There is also a question of priorities. How many outstanding invoices exist from the One Nation Concert compared with Carnival? Are some events paid promptly while others wait? Carnival sustains hundreds of small businesses—technicians, mas camps, performers, artists, and entrepreneurs operating on tight margins. Late payment is not a minor inconvenience; it is a barrier to creative entrepreneurship.

An even more uncomfortable question must be asked: Are international and regional artists paid upfront while local creatives are paid “when funds allow”? If imported headliners receive guaranteed advances while local performers wait months, it sends a stark message about whose labour is valued. Local creatives are the backbone of Carnival. Equity in payment is not symbolic—it is economic justice.

The minister has called for an “honest conversation” about Carnival financing, noting that hotels and airlines benefit from increased arrivals while the Festivals Commission does not directly receive revenue from those gains. That may be true. But honesty must begin with transparency. Before asking the private sector to contribute more, government must present audited budgets, credible economic impact data, and clear funding frameworks.

Carnival cannot be managed as a seasonal political project. During a recent visit to Trinidad and Tobago, I saw Carnival treated as an industry, supported by research, policy frameworks, and business models. Antigua and Barbuda must move beyond improvisation to professional governance.

Carnival 2026 will be vibrant. But spectacle cannot mask systemic weaknesses. If Carnival is to anchor our creative economy, those who build it must be paid promptly, transparently, and fairly.

The question is not whether we can afford transparency.

It is whether we can afford to continue without it.