One of the principal organizers of the 2007 Linden Town Week has told Stabroek Business that this year’s event will be seeking to emulate the inaugural 2006 Town Week programme by placing emphasis on community-based and cultural activities as well as tourism-related and commercial ventures.
Vanburn Browne, Co-ord-inator of the Linden Youth Parliament, one of the principal organizers of the 2007 Town Week told Stabroek Business that the event organizers were seeking to ensure that this year’s event emulated last year’s in terms of both community participation and commercial success.
This year’s Linden Town Week has seen the Linden Youth Parliament replace the Kashif and Shanghai Organ-ization as the major organizer of the event and Browne explained that organizational arrangements for the 2007 Town Week will include at least ten groups and will reflect more broad-based community participation. Browne told Stabroek Business that the Linden Youth Parliament had undertaken to plan and execute seventeen of the events listed on the Town Week Pro-gramme including a community Market Day and an exhibition of art and craft from Linden.
The 2006 Town Week was generally regarded as both a community and a commercial success and the jettisoning of the Kashif and Shanghai Organization from the position of overall organizational control followed the collapse of discussions with the Linden Mayor and Town Council over franchise fees for the staging of this year’s event. In 2006 the Kashif and Shanghai Organ-ization had paid the council $1m for the rights to stage the event.
Late last year the council informed the sports and entertainment group that it was seeking $2m for the franchise to stage the event this year.
Stabroek Business understands that the Kashif and Shanghai Organization had made a counter offer of $1m or 25 per cent of the gross takings from the event, whichever was the lesser amount but that the council had rejected that offer.
Asked about the franchise arrangements for the staging of the 2007 Town Week Browne said that the Regional Youth Parliament had pledged to pay a franchise fee of $1m for the right to stage 17 events and that other organizations had entered into separate arrangements with the council for the staging of other events. He added, however, that the Council continued to play an important role in coordinating the overall Town Week programme by holding meetings with representatives of the various event organizers.
Controversy persists however over whether or not the Kashif and Shanghai Organization will play a role in this year’s Town Week. Stabroek Business has seen a programme which lists the Kashif and Shanghai Organization as one of the event organizations. How-ever, Kashif and Shanghai Director Kashif Mohammed told Stabroek Business that while it was seeking to stage an entertainment event during the period of the Town Week it was not treating that event as part of the official programme.
Meanwhile, last year’s co-organisers, Linden Fund, USA have confirmed that they will be participating in the 2007 Town Week and that the organization will be seeking to bring home several hundred US-based Lindeners to participate in the Town Week Programme. Executive Director of the Linden Fund USA, Kathleen Whalen also confirmed that the fund will continue to be supportive of the Town Week.
Browne told Stabroek Business that the Linden Youth Parliament was currently engaging the private sector regarding sponsorship for the event and that it was also seeking government’s support for the Town Week.
