Barbadians have no shortage of fêtes or limes to choose from for Crop-Over 2010.As the season progresses, more events are cropping up on any given night, particularly on the weekends with LIME’s Pork Lime, Brewster’s Road Crew, Plantation Garden Theatre limes, Power X Four band fêtes, Passion Network Inc. fêtes, Kings & Queens, Party Animalz, Party Central and Scrawl Up limes, and other private parties being added almost weekly to the fête calendar.Friday nights are being dominated by the Pork Lime at the LIME Sports Club in Wildey with thousands of party-seekers making it their first stop on their rounds. One of the newer events for this year, the Plantation Garden Theatre limes, are much smaller by comparison. “The limes are not very big right now,” director Tony Hoyos explained. “We have about 300 people coming through on Friday nights . . . . We decided to start the limes as our way of giving back to Barbadians, particularly as things are so financially hard on everyone. “We are already open for our Friday night; so we invite people to stay on and others to come by to hang and enjoy themselves. It’s partly a thank-you lime and partly a brand-building initiative on our part. “We’re starting out this year and hoping it develops over time into something bigger. We’re an entertainment venue and we’re trying to respond to what the season is and trying to steer our policy in that direction more and more each year,” Hoyos said, adding there was also an increase in the number of calypso tents taking place at the venue as part of that initiative.Trevor Wood from Brewster’s Road Crew spoke to the Sunday Sun a few hours prior to the staging of its third fête for the season.“Generally we don’t get the huge crowds people associate with us until later in July. Nonetheless, the reception has been good. But with the Pork Lime now ending a little later [3 a.m.], what has tended to happen is people would come later from the Pork Lime . . . . Until Crop-Over really heats up, people might not come out,” he said, adding Brewster’s pre-Crop Over limes in May had been responded to quite favourably.Wood noted that with the increase of events on the Friday night they were naturally feeling the effects of the competition.“Competition is always good. But in the end people will choose what they’re looking for in an event, whether a lime or a party. When the momentum builds for Crop-Over you might see people going back to the traditional parties they’re more comfortable with,” he added. Neil Broome from Passion Network Inc. stated his group too had been feeling the impact of the competition on its Saturday night fêtes. But in its case it had its core group who loyally patronize events.“There are Passion people; then there are those who are tossed up in the middle who want to touch as many as the parties as possible. As promoters we are also obliged to patronize other people’s fêtes as well. But we try to maintain our core group. Our vibe and atmosphere are our biggest sellers,” Broome said, noting one of Passion’s biggest advantages was that it was a “till morning” event which patrons could touch as their last event for the night.Organisers of the Power X Four fêtes held at Kensington Oval reported massive numbers at their two events so far for the season, both seeing over 1 000 patrons.
