The Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Public Service, the Hon. Fred Mitchell has opined that the country’s laws should be changed to enable members of the Junkanoo community to benefit from revenue generated by the event. He also called for regulation of the commercialization of Junkanoo.
“One of the junkanooers in Nassau told me that between what they call nervous Saturday, I think that’s what they said it is, when the places in the parade are chosen and the end of December the rights accruing granting some or generated some $17 million to the owners of those rights. If this is so, that is substantial and there is more out there I’ll bet. The public’s appetite, the tourism demand is substantial and can be, it can be further monetized, but the question is who obtains these fees. I heard a lot of Eddie Minnis’ music. Did he get any fees? I heard Dr. Off’s music performed. The designers of the costumes, the choreographers, the bellers, the drummers and dancers, the designers and pasters are they compensated. Do they get a share of this $17 million? Coincidentally, I met with the son of the late Preston Stewart, Mr. Stewart was a friend of mine, and he presented me with a fascinating paper on the need to amend the copyright law so that all those people that I called would be able to collect revenues from Junkanoo. Junkanoo belongs to all and the money should be shared around.”
