Grenada Carnival Organizers Say They Need Five Million Dollars to Put on Spicemas 2024

ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada – The organizers of the annual carnival celebrations say they would need approximately five million EC dollars to put on the 2024 edition of the event.

“Spicemas 2023 cost us approximately E$4.1 million to put it on…and when we do some rough calculation it will cost us approximately five million EC dollars to put it on this year,” said Spicemas Corporation chief executive officer, Cecil Noel.

Speaking at the media launch of the event on Monday, Noel said the main financiers for the celebrations have been the National Lottery Authority (NLA), a statutory body under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports and the Grenada government. The NLA provided EC$1.1 million while the central government provided EC$1 million.

“The NLA has been playing a very pivotal role in terms of the finances that we receive; we were able to receive from them EC$1.1 million and we were able to receive one million EC dollars from the government. What we received was EC$2.1 to run the carnival, the actual budget was EC$4.1 million,” he said.

“The additional support we got was from sponsors, they remain a key component of what we do,” said Noel, who did not provide a breakdown of the financial support received from other sponsors in the private sector.

“Other aspect of the carnival such as gate receipts bought it up, so we were able to cover and yes, we ain’t owe anybody, we were able to pay all our bills for 2023,” he said.

Spicemas Corporation chairman, Kurt Ross, said that the theme for Spicemas 2024 is “An explosion of culture,” adding that it will officially be launched on May 4.

“It is a cultural experience,” said Ross.