Vendors are demanding answers after saying they suffered significant financial losses following a disappointing turnout at Vibrant UTH Fest at the Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya.<\/p>\n
The festival was promoted as a major two-day event on September 19 and 20, featuring live entertainment, performances, a youth marketplace, small business exposure, food, games and other activities.<\/p>\n
However, several participating vendors have since spoken publicly about their experience, saying the crowd they encountered was nowhere near what they had prepared for.<\/p>\n
Sweet Treats, one of the participating businesses, said vendors were told to prepare for around 5,000 attendees and invested based on that expectation.<\/p>\n
The business said it made 250 cookies and several dozen brownies specifically for the event, while also spending hundreds of dollars on ingredients, packaging, supplies and transportation.<\/p>\n
According to Sweet Treats, there was essentially no crowd and the turnout was nowhere remotely close to the thousands of people vendors said they had been told to expect.<\/p>\n
Another vendor who spoke publicly about the event said she prepared approximately twice her normal amount of products because of the expected attendance, but ultimately sold just two items.<\/p>\n
Vendors said the losses extended far beyond the reported $600 booth fee, with businesses spending additional money on stock, ingredients, packaging, transportation, branding and hours or even days of preparation.<\/p>\n
Questions have also been raised about information allegedly given to vendors concerning ticket sales.<\/p>\n
According to one vendor, participants were told during a meeting that approximately 2,000 tickets had been sold. She said vendors requested a screenshot or other evidence of those sales but were told the organiser was not at liberty to provide that information.<\/p>\n
The entertainment promoted in connection with the festival has also attracted questions.<\/p>\n
Promotional material seen by TG News advertised American comedian and actor Marlon Wayans as being scheduled to appear at Marvin Lee Stadium on September 20, with appearances listed from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and again from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
TG News has not found independent confirmation that Wayans ultimately appeared at the festival.<\/p>\n
Vendors have also alleged that some advertised or expected activities and amenities were not delivered as anticipated, including concerns surrounding tent arrangements and extreme heat affecting products.<\/p>\n
Sweet Treats said even the possible refund of the $600 booth fee would not erase the wider financial losses businesses incurred after preparing for the expected crowd.<\/p>\n
The business said small businesses cannot simply absorb thousands of dollars in losses when they have invested based on information communicated ahead of an event.<\/p>\n
Despite the disappointment, vendors said businesses came together to support one another, networking, purchasing products and even trading items after it became clear expected sales were not materialising.<\/p>\n
Those speaking publicly are now calling for greater transparency and accountability while encouraging other small businesses to ask for evidence supporting projected attendance before investing heavily in future events.<\/p>\n
Public event listings confirm Vibrant UTH Fest was scheduled at Marvin Lee Stadium on September 19 and 20, with $200 admission and more than 150 vendors and artisans among the attractions promoted.<\/p>\n
TG News has not independently verified the claim that vendors were promised approximately 5,000 attendees, the reported 2,000 ticket sales figure, the final attendance or the extent of individual vendor losses. Those claims are being attributed to participating vendors.<\/p>\n
The organiser should be given an opportunity to respond to the concerns raised and clarify the attendance projections, ticket sales, entertainment arrangements and any plans concerning vendor refunds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VibrantUTH small vendors demand answers after disappointing turnout despite being promised 5,000 attendees per day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}