With Trinidad’s International Soca Monarch competition a week away, the government of Antigua and Barbuda has yet to confirm whether or not they will be offering any financial assistance to Antigua’s sole representative Soca Monarch, Tian Winter.

Winning a bye into the show, Tian and his management team have been footing the bills of promotions for his upcoming performance. Having made several trips to Trinidad since August, Tian has been making his presence felt through interviews on radio and television shows, as well as the print press. 

Noting that Gimme A Taste has been getting more radio play, the soca monarch is confident that Soca Rebels will still hold its own against the competition.

Sadly, like his colleagues before him, Tizzy of El-A-Kru and Claudette Peters of Taxik, Tian can now also relate to the continued lack of government investment in Antigua’s entertainment industry. He and his management team can also relate to the seemingly dysfunctional relationship existing between the ministers of tourism and of culture that infuses bacchanalia in decision making about Carnival and Romantic Rhythms and now the International Soca Monarch Competition.

Many young people on the management team cringe at the sloppy manner in which decisions about national cultural development are made, but, however, together with Tian they continue their mission to raise enough funds to give Soca Rebels its just impact for the Trinidadian audience.

A few months ago, Coast hosted an evening of Tian with the Nu Edition band and other supporting artistes. This week, LIME carried the baton by asking customers to text TIAN (8426) to STAR (7827) to make a 99 cents donation.

Sadly, Antigua and Barbuda continues to fail to see the lucrative potential in investing in the entertainment business. While in Trinidad, Tian noted that while getting the opportunity to meet and socialise with his competitors, those from the smaller islands intrigued him, namely Skinny Fabulous from St. Vincent.

In his blog entry to keep his fans tuned in, Tian shares, “Skinny Fabulous from St. Vincent stood out as a shining example of what has to be done if some success is expected. The Vincentian government and Tourism Authority have supported him financially over the last two years and recently just gave him another grant in support of filming the music video for the song which he will be competing with – http://www.toronto-lime.com/news/2010/20100108_skinny_video.htm .

“They see his potential and have invested in him as part of their music tourism initiative. Since his rise, their carnival has seen an influx of visitors from the other islands, especially Trinidad. St. Vincent’s Carnival is even a major sponsor of the International Soca Monarch here.

“Every time there was a break between performances, a poster with the dates for their carnival flashed up on the big screen. We always think about tourism being people coming from Europe or North America but we forget all about regional tourism.”