Government Cancels Magic Show Sponsorship

July 7, 2012

Minister of Business Development and Tourism Wayne Furbert confirmed that the Department of Tourism has cancelled the sponsorship for the Bermuda Magic Show.

The Minister explained: “The Government has listened to the people over the years – locals and visitors alike – about the need for local entertainment. Government has responded to the demand by sponsoring local entertainment.

“For 2012, the Department of Tourism was approached by a local group who wanted to provide a signature event this year. This group had several years of entertainment experience, including an excellent series of performances in 2011, and a decision was made to sponsor the show.”

The Department entered into a contract with the local group who planned to put on more than 100 shows at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess between June and November.

Minister Furbert said: “Although there was a very successful launch in early June, the Department became concerned following the initial show about the lack of attendance and the cancellation of later performances.”

The Minister said the Department had spoken with stakeholders in the hospitality industry many times during the last month to try and encourage guests to attend the event, including working with the visiting cruise ships.

After hearing that the event has been cancelled several times, the Department sent a letter to the promoters advising that the Department’s sponsorship would be discontinued.

Minister Furbert said the decision to terminate sponsorship was “regrettable, but was made in the best interests of spending Government funds prudently to ensure maximum return on investment.” The Minister added that “contractual agreements were not honoured leaving the Department little choice but to end the agreement.”

The Minister said: “As far as I am aware the Bermuda Magic Show has not been cancelled, but I have been informed that it has been struggling with low attendance”.

A recent legal notice indicated the “Bermuda Magic and Entertainment Showcase” received approximately $250,000 in Government funds.

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Comments (15)

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  1. Liars! says:

    plp are total F$%^&^ng losers! The local entertainment is a disgusting joke……bring back some real entertainers……and 200$$K for a magic show……no wonder they are cancelling shows, they are probably not even here, probably flying around like the plp in first class

  2. Family Man says:

    $250,000 for a magic show? Wow, wish I could pull something like that out of my hat.

  3. Truth is killin' me... says:

    Wow…$250,000…now that’s magic! Who pulled who outta the hat!?

  4. Pastor Syl Hayward says:

    Oh I hope the show hasn’t been cancelled! I planned to go to see it as soon as I had a weekend night free. I guess I am one of the many that contributed to low attendance. Sorry Gene and friends. I was so happy to see you guys were performing again. Guess that goes to teach the lesson about jumping on opportunity when it first arrives, otherwise it will disappear.

  5. Um Um Like says:

    PLP should cancel their magic show.

  6. will says:

    im assuming the AME may have had something to do with this…its devil worship you know..but what about the huge amount of money WASTED on faith based events. It wasn’t entertaining nor was it fun.

  7. J says:

    If 5% of that money was spent for the Bermuda Musicians Association -
    1. there would have been sell out seats at every events.
    2. tourist would have had a night life of quality local entertainment.
    3. young people would have been encouraged to go into the hospitality industry in
    musical entertainment.

    OH WELL – MORE TAXPAYER MONEY GONE ‘UP IN SMOKE”
    IS THERE NO END TO THROWING MONEY AWAY AND TURNING YOUR BACKS TO YOUR CITIZENS????

  8. James says:

    First and foremost this was a full production created by arguably the best entertainers this country has ever produced. Secondly, in order to make the production a success it required the support of the tourism industry stakeholders led by cruise lines and hotels who are quick to point to a lack of entertainment on the island. It would have required a commitment from the tourism department to promote it as a part of their marketing campaign. It required the support of taxi drivers, concierge , front desk staff, retail staff, restaurant staff,and all others that have a vested interest in turning our tourism around.
    So here we go again; the naysayers will have a go at this announcement and come up with all types of stupid responses as we have seen above. Until we accept that entertainment is a critical piece of the visitor experience we will always only look at the expense. It’s my understanding that the break-even point for this was 150 tickets sold per show. With our cruise lines brining in 1,500, 2,000 and upwards of 4,000 visitors to Bermuda each week, explain to me how this show couldn’t make its numbers on cruise passengers alone. And what’s up with the hotels and their lack of support.
    For years all we heard from the cruise lines is that there is a lack of entertainment and nothing for their passengers to do. They successfully convinced the Department of Tourism to allow them to break the tourism policy and provide their own entertainment when in port.So here we go again, a production was offered and it was first class; the hotels don’t support it, the cruise lines don’t support it and the beat goes on! Unfortunately I’m not surprised.

    • Family Man says:

      Sounds like James has Bermuda failure disease. Failures happen; but in Bermuda failures are always everyone else’s fault rather than just a badly thought out, poorly executed business plan.

      Not every plan works James. If its your own money, that’s fine. You’re a big boy and can do what you want with your own money but when you take public money as sponsorship you have an added responsibility to ensure your business plan is sound. Or at least you should have an additional responsibility and duty of care. Now it just looks like you join the likes of Andre and his merry men.

      That $250,000 was tax money that I worked hard for.

    • JGT says:

      if you have been on a cruise ship, they have their own magic shows on their theatres with big production and props…so i guess cruise ship visitors will rather watch it onboard for free rather than pay a “bermuda price” for a lame show of magic

    • Out of flight says:

      Never heard your voice support it. What a pity. Not they have gone. So what is there?

  9. bermudamagician says:

    Just to clarify – this was not a magic show! it was a musical show entitled Bermuda Magic – look at it on youtube and then continue the bashing!

    • Family Man says:

      I guess that just proves what a piss poor business plan the whole concept was.

      Lets call a show Bermuda Magic and not have any magic in it at all. Lets make it a musical. Brilliant idea Patrick. Go tell SpongeBob he’s playing bongo drums this week. Oh, and we’ll ask all the existing businesses to send guests out of their own entertainment facilities into their competitors facility.

      Every single news media outlet; Bernews, RG, Sun, has assumed it was a magic show.

  10. Really says:

    Government smoke and mirrors act!

  11. Really says:

    Seemed like a good idea after a night of a elephant beers