Vexed Bermoothes

The Premier’s annual celebrity-stalking Love Festival is this week.

Like many people, I believe this event does not represent value for money for the ailing tourism sector.  In my opinion, it seems more like a personal boondoggle than a business promotion.

Press releases like this seem to reaffirm that opinion.

Chattanooga Chef to Cook For Bermuda’s First Family
This Valentine’s Day, one local chef will be on the beaches of Bermuda, but not for vacation.  Instead, Jernard Wells has been hired to cook the holiday meal for the leader of that country and 150 guests.

Wells has been in a kitchen since he was 10 years old.  He opened his first restaurant out of his mother’s Mississippi kitchen at 16.  And he now has his own cooking show.  But nothing prepared him for the phone call he took just last year.  “When they contacted me, I thought it was somebody just joking as usual,” remembers Wells.  “So I just kind of brushed it off.  But then they kept pursuing me.”  On the other end of the line was somebody claiming to be from Bermuda.  The first lady had read about Wells’ speciality of cooking for lovers, and hoped to hire him for their big Valentine’s day dinner.  “So I just gave them an out-of-this-world number and they said ‘OK, we’re sending the contract over’ and when I got it and then started researching it, I thought man, they must really be serious about this.”

UPDATE:  It appears that, following enquiries from local media, the article above has been removed from Mr. Wells’ website and Government says that Mr. Wells is not being paid to cook at the Love Festival.

The Love Festival also played a bit part in a Pay-to-Play scandal in the United States last year.

Treasurer Janet Cowell fired Gerrick in August from her job overseeing the $60billion-plus pension fund. She since has imposed reforms aimed at disclosing relationships with and fees to investment firms … One placement agent used by the Treasurer’s Office when Gerrick worked there was Lloyd Bridge Advisory Corp., whose CEO is the first lady of Bermuda, Wanda Henton Brown, a friend of Gerrick’s. Brown passed the airline ticket to the Love Festival to Gerrick, but Gerrick said someone else paid for the ticket.

A few questions:

• How much does the event cost to hold?
• How much does the Bermuda Government pay?
• Who are the external sponsors and what is their participation in cash and in kind?
• How many attendees?  How many are bona fide paying tourists (ie nongratis, nonsponsor, or nonorganiser)?  How many non-residents?

As in the case of the Music Festival, I suspect you will find the numbers just don’t make sense.