The $700-million artisan village in Falmouth is set for opening today, March 20.
At a sensitisation meeting recently, Manager Carol Rose-Brown shared that Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlet is scheduled for a walk-through of the facility, to which the public is also invited.
Giving an overview, Rose-Brown said:” There will be a façade of Falmouth, to include buildings like the courthouse and the parish church and shops, which offer guests unique items made right there on the village site. These include items made from straw and costume jewellery. “Dr Carey Wallace, Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) manager, added, “Unlike what is offered in local craft traders, the items sold in the Artisan Village will be of cutting-edge technology. Each shop will offer something different.”
Rose-Brown said the facility will also feature an entertainment section.
“Twelve persons from the area have been chosen and trained to provide the entertainment, “she said.
However the presentation did not escape criticism.
Fabian Davis, councillor for the Duncans Division, described it as a ‘cloning of Falmouth’. “What is being described as being on offer leaves very little for visitors to feel the need to walk through the town,” Davis said.
Devon Brown and Jonathan Bartley expressed disappointment that tambu dancing will not be a part of the original entertainment package.
Said Bartley: “This form of dancing is popular in Wakefield. Research should have been done before spending all that money to train twelve persons to provide entertainment.” Brown, a social development officer agreed.
Garth Wilkinson, a former mayor of Falmouth, queried why the old sugar warehouse could not be converted into an amphitheatre to meet the parish’s need for a public entertainment space.
“Adequate research should have been done and the need for an amphitheatre would have surfaced. There is no place in Trelawny which can host plays, etc,” he noted.
Wallace, in response, said,” Most of the planning has gone through, but we can look into the tambu dancing in the future.”
The artisan village in Falmouth was initially announced in 2016, to be built with 300 stores selling craft and other indigenous products, as well as space to assist the creation of these items by local craftsmen. When finished, the artisan village will complement the adjacent Falmouth dock and reposition it as the Caribbean’s main cruise ship port of call, according to earlier reports.