WHILE several promoters of events held over the festive season are still smiling all the way to the bank, others are still in tears.
Some promoters who invested millions of dollars to cover the high cost of venues, lighting, advertisements and security have now been left in huge debts.
Yasus Afari who staged Red Dut Showcase, at St. Elizabeth Technical School saw less than a thousand patrons inside the venue "I have lost thousands of dollars. I don't really know what went wrong because the show was well promoted," Yasus told THE STAR.
However, there are some who think the line-up lacked variety. Other feel it was because only non alcoholic beverages were sold at the venue.
The promoters of Christmas Extravaganza at Independence Park, St Elizabeth on December 23 also say they suffered a lost. "We needed at least 4, 000 persons in the venue to cover our expenses and we got only 3,000," Carla Ashley told THE STAR. She added that, "It was a success production-wise, but we overspent."
The organisers said $80,000 was spent on lighting the park, another $150,000 for security, $40,000 for a standby generator and $40,000 for a security fence to protect the performers from patrons.
In addition the promoters had to deal with the costs of hotel accommodation for artistes. There were other costs which included paying several artistes and three bands.
Two days after the Tommy Hilfiger Fashion 2000 show held at Mass Camp Village, December 20, one promoter was virtually in tears. "Man I don't even think I have enough money to keep me in the island.
The show rained out and we lost thousands of dollars," Donovan McKoy told THE STAR.
Sting promoters also said they did not make a profit, having spent $10 million on the production of the show. "There were 9,000 patrons at the venue, but not all paid. With a show like that I expected 15,000 and 11,000 people at least to break even," said Isiah Laing.
Laing said lighting and sound was well over a million, security was half a million. Advertisement was running another $1/2 million. These were only a few of the costs.
"There were no bogus tickets on hand but many people found other means of getting in free," Laing added.
