ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Pre-Caribana events on Barbuda have begun, but the issue of air and sea transportation is posing a major threat to the success of the festival.
Incoming traffic to the sister isle increases around this time of the year and organisers of the festival are seeking to make alternative arrangements to get people back and forth.
Co-ordinator for the festival Maureen Lee-Simon told OBSERVER Media that the committee is in the process of arranging chartered flights to accommodate people, especially technical teams who are working with the committee.
“One thing I’m doing now is chartering flights on SVG Air for people I had booked on the Barbuda Express,” Simon said in an interview.
“We are trying to get them over because these are people we really need. It’s the usual challenges and once again, we are working to overcome them.”
The ferry service, according to Simon, has been out of commission for quite some time and it is not yet known when it will be back up and running.
“The Barbuda Express, it’s been down and up, running and not running,” Lee-Simon said.
“The last we heard, there was to be a test run on Monday, which proved that it was not ready.”
The week of activities is being held under the theme, “Resurrecting the Bu-yard Roots and Culture for 2012,” and is centred on the sister isle’s cultural heritage.
(More in today’s Daily OBSERVER)
