Organizers for Bahamas Junkanoo Carnival say that this year will be a large improvement on last years’ event.

The budget for carnival this year has also been slashed as organizers of the event says that they want to spend less but produce more.

“I think we have made a conscious and deliberate effort to try bring as much Bahamian cultural offerings in the village this year than we did last year,” Executive officer of the Bahamas National Festival Commission, Roscoe Dames said.

“A lot of effort is being made with the cruise lines, with the hotels, with our media partners in conjunction with the Ministry of Tourism and with visitors. I think we have somewhere around 80 to 100 international media,” Mr. Dames said.

Last year the budget for carnival was $12 million, however this year the budget has been brought down to half that amount at $7 million.

“Every effort is being made to manage our expenses a lot more than last year,” Mr. Dames said

“We’ve made all kinds of improvements. The footprint of the village has really changed this year. This year the technology has changed even from a ticketing perspective. It makes for much greater efficiency, currently what we have is a total of five different ticket operations that are happening at any given time,” Executive Director of Unique Bahamas Patrick McGrue said.

“The mega stage is bigger, bolder and better than you’ve ever seen it before. You’ve got a much more amazing stage than you’ve seen last year.”

Last year, many of the vendors at the event complained that they had a severe let down in sales during the three-day event.

Low volumes of people patronized vendors and according to most vendors, there was a low turnout of tourists, however this year Mr. Dames says provisions have been put in place for tourists to be guided towards the site of the event.

Some of these provisions include a shuttle service and mannequins that will point to the site of the event as tourists leave the cruise ship area.

This year, along with improvements on tourism, the commission has marketed very heavily in the United States.

Junkanoo Carnival will begin on Thursday at Da Cultural Village with entertainers such as Kerwin DuBois taking the stage, Friday night will be the music masters competition along with entertainers such as Wyclef Jean and Destra being the headliners and on Saturday the Road Fever event will take place starting at 10 a.m.