Good morning and fuck you “IslandPeople” … Girlpower 2012 fete review – February 17th, 2012

I had to think long and hard about how to express and post my utter contempt for IslandPeople and their horrible organization at last night’s event GirlPower. I for one will NEVER ever attend or RECOMMEND an IslandPeople event again – in fact for the next three years, I’ll set a reminder to write a post to remind people that IslandPeople doesn’t give a shit about them and their hard earned money. You can e-mail these jackasses here: info@islandpeoplemas.com – of course, don’t expect a response. Here was the preamble in the Guardian … if you know you can’t deliver, then move the fete.

For instance, at the time of writing this blog, Tribe had their own difficulties with PR and communication … will they change? Absolutely not … since they don’t have to change … after going to GirlPower 2012, I see that a lack of concern or attention to negative feedback is endemic through the “big band” and “big fete” organizations. Why should they give a shit about the consumer when :

One segment of the population will take out “Carnival Loans” to be seen in fetes
Another segment of the population robs from another segment to get the money to fete
Another segment only looks for foreign man/woman to help their escape from the shit that Trinidadian society has become

My final point here to fete promoters and band promoters : YOUR PROBLEMS ARE NOT MY PROBLEMS. IF I CAN’T PAY YOUR PRICES, DO YOU ASK WHY I COULDN’T PAY? NOPE … YOU DON’T GIVE TWO RAT’S ASSES … HENCE I COULDN’T GIVE A FLYING FUCK ABOUT YOUR PROBLEMS, IF YOU CAN’T DELIVER!!!

Anyway back to my rant. When I think of an “All Inclusive” fete … I’m NOT expecting that the event organizers will open the doors to “VIP” people at 11:20pm and  midnight for “General Admission”.

The VIP section was a joke … uttery fuckery. There were almost as many VIP people are there were general admission and of course how they separated the crowd at floor level was yet another disaster. Coming into the VIP area, nothing was setup till after midnight in terms of food and bars. You pay for the VIP section so you have better customer service, faster food and less people in your section. It’s as simple as that. If you make the entire fete VIP, then do it like Moka. At least Moka, while expensive – you get absolutely what you paid for.

At this time, the food stalls weren’t even ready for opening, which created a huge backlog that kept going for the entire night. Again, a bit of perspective needs to be applied here … this isn’t world hunger or genocide in Darfur … just some poor organization, horrible service and completely assuming that Trinidadians are asses and will accept anything. (For all intents, they will … since even a terrible sound system, poor event planning, 30 minute line ups for food, segregating the stage level with a fence, malfunctioning toilet facilities. Note that the picture below was just after 11:20pm and the lines are building up … even with very few stalls for food.

At 11:45pm on the General Admission side … this was the scene … 11:45pm!!! Dark and completely deserted with 1000’s of people waiting like assholes on the outside.

By 12:30am on the VIP side, it was a complete madhouse with much, much more people on the VIP side than the General Admission side, because the General Admission people were still trying to get in.

Of course, the disorganization was endemic. Even when trying to patrol a fire exit and safety concern … here is the following video (Derek from IslandPeople was polite enough to ask if I was recording the scene and of course I couldn’t use my blog’s name, then tried to explain the situation – which was useless …. the perception of the situation was poor and explaining a shitty situation to pissed off people is useless)

As for the routines and stage performances, everyone gave their canned typical performance since I forgot that Soca Monarch was on the same night …  Kes, Destra and FayAnne all gave good performances….here is Kes’ routine again with the Rabbit. (I saw this routine at Tribe Ignite, GirlPower, Triniposse and Moka – I was sick of it by the end … but that’s not Kes’ fault)

At 5am or so … the show finished after Destra … no announcement was made. Machel, of course didn’t show up … typical! OF course, no one offered any apology, fruit fly or anything … it just time to get the fuck out of the fete. We didn’t even try waiting for food, because the lines were a mile long.

So IslandPeople … FUCK YOU and YOUR FETE. NEVER AGAIN! I HOPE OTHERS READ THIS. Trinidad Carnival Diary has the same opinion as I do on your fete skills.