And while he has high hopes for the future of the University of Belize, he also explained that, based on the preliminary report, Cabinet is also pleased with the performance of the BTB International Music and Food Fest. Thousands of Belizeans flooded Ambergris Caye to attend - getting a chance to see international artists such as Koffee and Patrice Roberts live and trying a variety of Belizean cuisine.
Culture Minister Fonseca said that he believed the festival also completed its main objective, which was to expose Belizean artists.
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"It was a preliminary report and based on that preliminary report we are satisfied that the BTB met its objectives. The minister has promised a more comprehensive report dealing with the finances of the festival which he has said he will share publicly as well. So, we have not received that as yet, but we are satisfied that the principal objectives of the festival were met. It was an excellent event, I myself attended on one night, Saturday night. I wasn't able because of my commitments with the emancipation date to attend on Sunday night. On Saturday I thought it was an amazing show, I thought both our local performers and the international performers did an excellent job. We had close to 5,000 people in attendance, so I think it did a lot to raise the profile, the entertainment profile of Belize."
Reporter
"Sir, those objectives being? Remind us kindly?"
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
"Well, I think as they said from the very beginning, that the whole objective was to uplift the Belize brand to signal to the world community, to the international community that after 2 years of COVID Belize was open back as a tourist destination; that our economy was open back and we wanted to put off a big show. At the same time, it provided us with an opportunity to get our creative sector, the musicians and artists engaged in some economic activity. So, I think those objectives were met."
The opposition UDP on the other hand is not impressed.
They call for, quote, "full accounting of every dollar of the almost $1 million in public funds that were used to finance the San Pedro concert... end quote, and add, quote, "Sadly, of the $1 million Belizean tax payer money spent, the small amount of Belizean artists that were hired amounted to less than five (5) percent of the budget... The United Democratic Party maintains the position that it is wasteful to spend hundreds of thousands of tax payers' dollars on foreign artists."
