Chairman of the Virgin Islands Festival and Fairs Committee Mr. Marvin Blyden said his job is to reinforce the rules that have been ignored over the years to produce a healthy, lively and stress-free festival. Photo: VINO/File

Speaking to Virgin Islands News Online on July 17, 2012 following a press conference where some changes for the festival were announced including the one song/one round calypso competition scheduled for July 28,2012 Mr. Blyden said, “In the past if you were hired to do a project for the committee, you could have just go and get an estimate for some work and bring it to the committee and we give you a cheque, but now we enforce that you must get a Purchase Order (PO) and at the same time, if there is one or more businesses that provide the service or products in question, you must get at least two PO’s before the committee approves.”

The Chairman added that other than the changes regarding the calypso show and its calypsonians, everything else that is involved with the festival this year remains the same.

He said that on the outside it will look like changes, but in reality they are just the rules and regulations that were being ignored and taken advantage of, and as Chairman, he will enforce those rules and carry out all the enforcements of the committee.

“This is a very hard job, because when you are in a position of doing something different and someone comes around and changes it, it creates a big problem with everybody.”

Mr. Blyden was appointed by Cabinet to be the chairman for three years, with this (2012) being his first year.

In the Virgin Islands, the Chairman of the VI Festival and Fairs Committee is traditionally appointed by the Minister of Culture, where he then takes the name to Cabinet to be approved.

Mr. Blyden has also been the chairman of the Calypso, Festival Village and the Parade committees.

“I am one of those who made their way up the rank, I didn’t just appear to be Chairman.”