Paul Major, Chairman BNFC

The Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC) was established to create a carnival-style national festival and to stimulate economic activity in the Creative Industry Sector, including Junkanoo, Music, Art, Crafts and Bahamian Cuisine. Central to this purpose is finding a way for culture to significantly impact the growth of our gross domestic product (GDP).

“The rest of the world is benefitting from culture as an economic engine, and the Bahamas must be more aggressive and strategic to compete in this space. There must be two parallel streams of activity: 1) cultural development for the purpose of building national identity and preserving our cultural heritage; and 2) business development for the purpose of capitalizing on the economic potential of the Creative Industry Sector,” said Paul Major, Chairman of the BNFC.

“There are several intuitions responsible for identity building and cultural preservation: the Antiquities, Monuments & Museum Corporation (AMMC), the College of the Bahamas, the Department of Culture. While these institutions need to be strengthened, there are no institutions dedicated to the economics of cultural production, none. That is what the Bahamas National Festival Commission is about: Business development and marketing promotion for our Creative Industry,” said Mr Major.

Many of the commissioners appointed to direct the BNFC come from the private sector onpurpose, because the cultural industries in the Bahamas are not short on creative people. Thesector lacks access to supply chains, sales and distribution networks, global marketing reach, business management expertise, and all of those fundamental components of business.

“The strategy adopted by the BNFC was to combine global best practices in the festival industryand Bahamian culture to create a viable economic model for the Bahamas. Bahamas Carnival is the starting point because all around the world, the carnival business model has proven itself,” said Mr Major.

“During the Notting Hill Carnival in London, visitor expenditure totals US$143 million. In Trinidad and Tobago, the government injects $60 million of stimulus into carnival for a $400 million economic return. By injecting $9 million of stimulus, the Bahamas Carnival can generate $27 million in GDP impact. Carnival is no longer the little cultural festival it was at its inception. It is an economic beast. It is no longer simply a cultural product in itself; it is a vehicle to market and promote place-specific cultural and entertainment events,” he said.

Bahamas Carnival will be a Bahamian festival. In fact, it will be a collage of Bahamian culture, highlighting Bahamian music, Junkanoo and art. It is not a single event: it is a collection of celebrations, concerts, cultural shows and street parades that pull from all aspects of Bahamian culture and heritage. When you bundle all of the events together over a specified period and

“Over the long term, the work of the BNFC will positively impact all national festivals andart forms. It will help to strengthen cultural institutions, stimulate new opportunities for small and medium size enterprises, and add capacity – business capacity in particular – to creative professionals and most importantly create year round opportunities for our craftspeople and entertainers, ‘said Mr Major.

About The Bahamas National Festival Commission The Bahamas National Festival Commission (BNFC) was formed in October 2013 with a mandate from the Prime Minister of The Bahamas to stimulate economic opportunity for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Creative Industry Sector, while positively and significantly impacting GDP. Top priorities include: bringing to fruition a new Bahamian-style Carnival in May of 2015 and stimulating year round employment in the Creative Sector.