Persons who would have turned up yesterday at the various ticket distributing venues in the hope of obtaining tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies would have left those venues disappointed.

In fact, only tickets for the Grand Market and a few of the Performing Arts festivities were available at some of the main ticket distributing centres yesterday.

According to Nigel Dharamlall, the CEO of Carifesta X, all tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies have already been distributed. He said that only about 6,000 tickets each for both the closing and opening ceremonies had been available for distribution. He said that although efforts had been made to distribute tickets to various regions across the country, the reality of the situation was that the majority of these tickets were obtained by people residing in Region 4. He said that the demand for tickets was high and added that there were only tickets available for the festivities at the Sophia Exhibition Complex and the performing arts events at the National Cultural Centre and the Theatre Guild in addition to the various community festivals.

Meanwhile, a small group of persons holding placards gathered a short distance from the annex of the Secretariat protesting against the disorder in the ticket distribution system. The group consisted mainly of people who had turned up at the annex to collect tickets but were later informed that no tickets would be released from that location.

According to Gabriella Patram, she had joined the line outside the Secretariat since 6 am and waited for over three hours before a notice was placed on the gate informing them that no tickets were being issued at the Secretariat and advising them to go to other named venues to collect tickets.

Another protestor, Leon Hunte, held a placard saying “We rather pay than be treated like dogs”. Clearly upset, he said that if the Secretariat knew that they did not have tickets, they should have informed those that had joined the line much earlier. He said that Guyanese deserved much better treatment and suggested that charging a fee for the tickets may have been the way to go.

Gary Hinds, who is a volunteer at the Secretariat, was not only protesting against the ticket distribution system but more so against what he called “poor management by the Secretariat.”  He says that he has volunteered with several organisations before but described the Carifesta Secretariat as “the worst organization that he has ever worked with”. He was particularly peeved that he had not received his special Carifesta accreditation badge as yet. He said when he went to receive his accreditation he was told that he had to go to Region 3 and he said no explanation was given.

A few of the persons gathered said that they found it strange that the Secretariat had stopped issuing tickets since it was in charge of the entire distribution system.

Stabroek News was told that the large turnout of persons at the Secretariat on Wednesday in the search for tickets, had significantly hampered operations at the Secretariat and this may have been the reason behind the suspension of the site as a ticket distributing venue.

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony at a press briefing held later in the day at the International Convention Centre said that the rush for tickets was immense especially for the opening and closing ceremonies.

When asked if the organisers were considering having people pay to attend events that required tickets considering the mad rush for tickets, Minister Anthony stated that such a policy was against the objective of the Secretariat. He explained that the intention was to make the events available to all, and he said that the tickets were being used as a security measure so as to maintain crowd control.

He explained that that was the case with all the ticketed venues and specially mentioned the National Stadium. He said that the super concerts and the Hindu and Christian religion-themed events would cater for more people than the opening and closing ceremonies since the majority of the people in attendance at these events would be standing on the field. He explained that about 25,000 tickets had been printed for the super concerts, 20,000 for the gospel concert and 15,000 for the Hindu night.