Thursday, March 28, 2024

Market a washout

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THIS YEAR’S Bridgetown Market was a wet, muddy affair.However, this did not stop some Barbadians from attending the annual event, especially as evening drew close.In the morning, heavy rainfall turned the Spring Garden Cricket field into a mushy mess and patrons of the craft market had to navigate through mud, water and over pieces of wood.Sasha Sutherland put it into perspective. She said mud and water should not stop anyone from getting what they wanted or from supporting local craft.“Tourists can walk through mud and buy these things, so why not us? The same way we can walk through mud to go to a fête, why not for art? I love art and while the location may not be ideal, the rain fell, just wash your feet when you get home,” she said.Around 1:30 p.m., Spring Garden was just being closed to through traffic and there was hardly a man on the road. Many vendors placed the blame on the showers for the slow start to the day. Mark Arthur, who sells sunglasses, was one of them.“People buy sunglasses according to the sun. Now it’s getting hot, sales should pick up and tomorrow should be even better,” he said.Perennial sno-cone vendor Stephen Joseph was in a similar boat. He said it was chilly and thus people were not inclined to buy sno-cones.“Sales are down because of the rain and I don’t know if it will pick up but I will be back tomorrow,” he said.Food vendor Collis Moore also said sales were low but he said it wasn’t because of the rain, just the time.“Sales will pick up later; right now things ain’t start to do nothing yet. Later, especially when people get rum in them, then we will see things pick up,” he said.Not every vendor reported low sales. Craft vendor Cedric Clarke of Williams Legacy had a full house and he said this was the norm at Bridgetown Market for him.“I come to Bridgetown Market every year and stay in this same spot and it has never let me down. Despite the rain earlier, business has been really good today. I just want the organisers to keep up with marketing the event,” he said.Both Betty Worrell and Brenda Wilson said they thought a better job could have been done in marketing. They said there was nothing to indicate to tourists where Bridgetown Market actually was.“There should be a tuk band or something at the entrance to show where the market is,” said Wilson.The SUNDAY SUN spotted Divi Southwinds Hotel’s general manager Alvin Jemmott in the crowd and asked him about his feelings concerning this year’s Crop-Over season.“Currently there are lots of overseas-based Bajans in for Crop-Over which is very good. One of the things that is being pushed is getting the Barbadian diaspora to get more involved and act as travel agents to promote the island,” he said.For the first time, a hotel took part in Bridgetown Market. The Princess Hotel and Casino in Guyana made the trip to Barbados this year to capture more of the market.Promote company“We thought coming here would be an easy way to promote ourselves to tourists and to meet people here,” said director of sales and marketing, Petal Ridley.“The Bajan market is huge in Guyana. Lots of Barbadians come to Guyana for vacations, reunions, rallies, to get married and for the Masharami festival.She said they researched Crop-Over events on-line and decided to take part in Bridgetown Market. General manager, Muharrem Kulekci said they had no problems.Environmental Health officer, Keith Cadogan said the mud was not a problem as every food vendor had flooring. He said the vendors were all sticking to regulations, adding the health practices of vendors have improved “significantly” over the years.Police reported no incidents but added they would have to wait and see what may occur later in the day towards dark when people started to drink alcohol.

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