Pop­u­lar events pro­mot­er and pro­duc­er Randy Glas­gow is ap­peal­ing to Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts Ran­dall Mitchell, as well as Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters, to pro­vide a plat­form to show­case young so­ca tal­ent.

The plea came from Glas­gow yes­ter­day, one day af­ter the NCC chair­man con­firmed that the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch, which had been a fix­ture among Car­ni­val events and com­pe­ti­tions for the past three decades, was in lim­bo due to a lack of fund­ing for a sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year.

Glas­gow re­called how youth-tai­lored events al­low for the spot­light to be placed on up-and-com­ing artistes, paving the way for them to as­cend through the in­dus­try.

“When we now start­ed in the pro­mo­tion busi­ness, one of our first projects was a show called the Youth Fest and it helped dis­cov­er peo­ple like De­stra Gar­cia, Bun­ji, Max­imus Dan and those from that era. What I’m see­ing with the youths who bor­row­ing a lit­tle mon­ey from their grannies to make a song, and there are no op­por­tu­ni­ties. It is frus­trat­ing and I want to make that ap­peal to the Min­is­ter and NCC. They have all the in­fra­struc­ture and it doesn’t take much to host a so­ca com­pe­ti­tion for young peo­ple,” he said.

Glas­gow added that new artistes have been fac­ing in­creased chal­lenges and the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch was viewed as a life­line.

“Right now, it prob­a­bly have about 200 youths who would have in­vest­ed their mon­ey in the mu­sic and nowhere to turn be­cause they not in the fetes, be­cause they aren’t the big or pop­u­lar artistes, so there is nowhere for them to go and the so­ca com­pe­ti­tion af­fords them the op­por­tu­ni­ty to show­case them­selves,” he added.

The In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch’s last pow­er so­ca win­ner, Neil “Iw­er” George, al­so said the ab­sence of the com­pe­ti­tion placed so­ca in dan­ger, not­ing par­tic­u­lar­ly the fi­nan­cial fall­out for artistes.

Not­ing that par­tic­i­pa­tion in the So­ca Monarch of­ten gave some young artistes an in­come to use for projects next sea­son, he said, “So if you don’t have a cash­back sys­tem, an artiste doesn’t have a way to get mon­ey and come back next year, that is why I say­ing that it (so­ca) is in dan­ger,” George ex­plained.

Aaron Dun­can, 20, a two-time fi­nal­ist at the com­pe­ti­tion, said the event not be­ing held again this year is a ma­jor blow to the so­ca in­dus­try.

“From the time you want to do so­ca, you want to see your­self on the So­ca Monarch stage and now see­ing it go­ing in­to sham­bles, where it is not there any more, it is a heart-break­ing thing for the in­dus­try.”

Dun­can lament­ed that the in­cen­tive for up­com­ing artistes is now lost.

“Do­ing this is not free, we in my stu­dio right now, this took a pen­ny from us and So­ca Monarch and all these things were the rea­son that these things hap­pen.”