THE Linden Mayor and Town Council on Tuesday announced that Linden Town Week 2018 will not be franchised out as was the case in previous years but will be manned by the Council while allowing for inclusion of all stakeholders, promoters and residents of Linden.
At a press conference held at the LMTC, it was explained that a decision was made by the Council to be the coordinator of the highly anticipated 10 days of events, but will be sub- franchising major events and signature events to whomsoever expresses interest in doing so.

Chairman of the Social Committee, Keeran Williams, explained that the Council has decided to run with the ‘inclusion’ model so that no one stakeholder will monopolise the event, thus benefiting handsomely from the funds garnered while the town is starved of same. This model will guarantee that the town fully benefits not only economically, but socially. “Inclusion continues to be the focus of this municipality and one of the major premises, we seek to move forward the Linden Town Week and to ensure that every Lindener, every partner, every stake- holder is given an equal opportunity to actively participate in this process,” Williams highlighted.

He revealed that the seven entertainment organisations that bid for the franchise, are still expected to come on board and collaborate with the LMTC and can also bid for signature events such as the fete events that attract thousands of people every year. Councillor Devin Sears said that the decision is not to disenfranchise anyone, but to make sure every Lindener has an equal opportunity to play a part.

“The Council will not disenfranchise any investor or promoter; we are not in the business of doing that….. the Linden Mayor and Town Council is not a for-profit entity…our interest is primarily the people of Linden, if the people of Linden are happy, we are happy,” Sears posited, adding that LTW has the potential to be one of the largest socio-cultural activities in Guyana which can significantly boost Linden’s tourism and economic standing.

For this to occur however, everyone need to come on board and major public consultations will occur in the coming weeks. The LMTC will also be focusing on community and family-oriented events; something that has been described as lacking over the last few years.

Bidding process
A LTW 2018 Secretariat will be established as the bidding process for many of these events will be opened soon after consultations are concluded. There will be clauses and specifications which determine who qualifies to bid. As it relates to events that were hosted by particular promoters for years, such as the Linden Dream Team that had hosted the colour party for many years, these promoters would still have to bid for those events. Councillor Keeran Williams said that the Council is aware of the issues of event-branding and the Council will continue to deliberate on how the issue will be dealt with, so as to not stir up contention in the town.

Meanwhile, many residents of Linden, especially young people, have expressed disappointment in the decision made by the Council as there were high expectations in many quarters for the Kashif and Shangi Organisation to win the franchise since according to many, would have executed a very successful and exciting LTW in 2006. “I think everyone should hold hands and boycott LTW 2018 because the Council didn’t take no one else into consideration but itself, they held the LTW in 2007 and nothing proper didn’t come out of it.

Many people are very disappointed, no proper consultation was done and they just made a decision claiming it is for the best interest of the town and you didn’t even ask the residents what they want; many persons will not come in and next year it [will] not be supported,” one irate young Lindener commented.

Some residents have also expressed disappointment that VYBZ entertainment, who was the franchise holder from 2015- 2017, was not given another chance, since they thought that the young entrepreneurs weathered many storms in executing a successful LTW 2017. In an invited comment, Director of Vybz Entertainment Lincoln Zephyr said that the organisation is disappointed that it did not win the bid and believes that despite the odds, the LTW 2017 was successful.

“We were looking forward to hosting LTW 2018, the Council has made a decision that is shocking to me,” Zephyr said. Despite the disappointment, VYBZ will be holding in- house discussions on how to move forward with the recent development of the Council, so that the organisation can still play a role in LTW 2018 since its proposal had also highlighted that collaboration would have been embraced.

The LMTC is expecting to launch LTW 2018 in November, while the tentative dates are slated for the 22nd April to the 1st May 2018. A theme-writing competition among primary school students will also be held soon.