DC Carnival Party Woes

Brace yourselves, its gonna be a long post!


I've put off blogging about this for some time now in hopes that how I felt would change. I really hate to have to be negative about a promoter that has done such a great job in the past but I feel strongly about the situation.

According to one of my friends I am the DC Carnival financial analyst.

Last DC Carnival I had a blast! I went to Machel the friday ($50 approx), jumped with the mud band Saturday ($15 because I only paid for the tshirt) and Indigo the Sunday ($40).. Now mind you Machel performed for a pretty long while complete with Patrice and Nappy, I heard everything from 'Stalker' to 'Music Farm' to his most recent hits. The vibe was bess and food and drinks just flowed. I 100% got my money's worth and then some. Indigo was undoubtedly hands down one of the best fetes I've been to in a really long while, so much so that this year I said I would prob just go to one party for the weekend and Indigo was it. The crowd kept it fun but classy and it was the perfect end to my carnival weekend.

Fast forward to this year and lets see how much this same weekend would cost me now. Friday 'concert' with Kees ($55.), mud band ($35), Indigo ($70). Yes I said it..SEVENTY DOLLARS USD! Now the mud band is getting left out because honestly that is and has been for some years now the price of their real package which includes t shirt, breakfast and non alcoholic drinks. BUT as for the other two. First off to all you folks getting hype off of seeing Kees perform please take another look at the flyer and note that it says HOSTED BY Kees. Nowhere on the flyer does it say prformance by! So more than likely I would be paying $55 dollars to watch Kees be a mic man and if I'm lucky maybe he'll sing a verse off one of his songs. Yeh. Not happening. I'm sorry but if I spent the same amt to see Machel do everything but back flip off the stage there is no way I'm going to spend that amount this year for a regular party. ESPECIALLY when the Saturday night will have legit performances and its only $35.

Then Indigo...sigh. where to start. I mean its true that it comes down to "Supply & Demand. they can charge what we will pay...." as @cropover123 tweeted to me but jeez a $30 jump with nothing to show for it? Alyuh have no shame? Despite the pressure of my presumably richer? friends I have decided not to bother 'submitting my ticket request for review' this year because honestly its just not worth it.
1)No performance
2)The crowd is already pretty much as bougie as it could get...there was not a single person at that party last year that was remotely hood or grassroots or however you want to say it. So basically there's no room for improvement here in my opinion as Gresham Ent was already doing a good job of crowd selection.
3)Drinks menu looks pretty much the same as does the dj lineup except there's no Private Ryan :(

I mean really..you expect me to pay more to go to a party with the same djs, same drinks, same crowd? Negative!

So my DC party plans are now pretty much up in the air...who knows, maybe I'll just sit this year out at home...or take that $150 and go buy myself a Longchamp lol