And Minister Mahler insisted today that there will be transparency, though he didn't state exactly how he plans to do this. Still, he feels the $750,000 for the festival is money well spent since this concert isn't just a one and done. Mahler believes that it could become an annual event held regularly in different destinations across Belize.
But in response to the UDP's press release, he noted that they're being a lot more careful with the money than he believes the Leader of the Opposition would be, since he was apparently willing to cough up over $250K for Buju Banton:
Hon. Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
"There's always going to be transparency. We're spending a million dollars and more on these campaigns in there, how is it different? It's just a different medium to get Belize exposed. Have you heard of the St Lucia Jazz Fest? Why?"
Reporter:
"Because St Lucia's government promotes it."
Hon. Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
"St. Lucia is the one who promotes it. Have you heard of Sun Fest in Jamaica? Why? And what does that do for Jamaica? And what does that do for St. Lucia? Listen to me, when Buju Banton came to Belize, I will say this publicly right now, I was going to hold it for the House, the Leader of the Opposition called me to come and greet Buju Banton and I said, why would I go? For the last month or two, we've been negotiating with juju Banton, trying to have him be the headline for the music festival and every single week he changed his price. And I said, I'm not going because he is quoting us $200,000 US. The Leader of the Opposition said to me, he is worth more. He said I will pay him $250,000 US and more. He is worth it. So if I paid Buju Banton $250,000 US, that's $500,000, that's 3/4 of the budget that we have for at least forty local and international artists. And that is the real."
Courtney Menzies:
"Sir but do you think you'll be seeing that return considering that the festival is two months away, and I don't believe tickets have started to sell as yet, and we're nearing the end of May."
Hon. Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
"So we have a tremendous marketing power within the Belize Tourism Board with our international partners. Tickets will go on sale on the 7th of June I believe and we believe that the energies we're going to put into it is going to help us sell the tickets."
"We believe that it is an investment in our artists, it is an investment in developing the culinary arts for Belize, infusing those things into the overall product. We're not here to make profit, if we breakeven, that is going to help us, but that is an investment in our people and our industry."
When we spoke to Shyne Barrow, he admitted that, yes, he believes Buju Banton is worth that much, but that he would have paid it out of his own pocket and not public funds. He then insisted that all public funds should have been used on to hire all local artists.
And in the UDP's release, they conclude that the Belizean artists are getting less than 5% of the overall budget. Here's how Mahler responded:
Hon. Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
"If I, just say - if I brought an old Lebron James to play for one of the basketball teams here in Belize, would he not be able to generate, get more to play than one of the local players? I'm just asking right. So, what we've done is to invite artists to perform on the 2 nights. They have given us what they would like and we have said okay. We never said $200 or $300 or whatever it is. What would you like to perform, depending on who you are. So just another part of that right - who is the biggest artist in Belize? Supa G. So should Supa G earn the same amount as an up and coming artist? He has done it for 20 years at a high level. He has the right to garner more than just a young artist coming up. Now, we want as we move and develop this music festival and food festival for our local artists to be headliners more and more as we develop. My goal is to have our own version of Bob Marley and Rihanna and all the other international artists who are out there making a lot of money. This is a vehicle for them to be able to express their art and showcase themselves on an international platform."
