Conferencing
hold any conference
of Calypso and once an entertainer himself known as the “Mighty Manicou” back in the day, Dolland reveals that initially the concept was a bit overambitious as an events venue; “We started with a cultural village concept, thinking that tourism would be our primary market but it hasn’t worked out that way. We opened hoping that people would just turn up, but that was cost prohibitive so we had to re-plan our approach to hosting and advertising events.” That strategy has paid off, with the most lively entertainment and grand scale theatre productions on island. “We often see our shows sold out and Grenadians love to come out for a good comedy... I am convinced that Grenadians have a high standard, and if you give them a quality product they will respond.” Spice Basket works with local Tour Operators to provide various tour packages that incorporate the theatre productions, and the Cricket & Nutmeg Museum. Tours that are fun and highlight Grenada’s culture. To specifically target the Cruise ship passengers the venue offers cultural packages consisting of folk song and dance performances set during the day to accommodate the passengers timetable. Dolland claims that over 40 % of cruise ship passengers to Grenada are repeat visitors, suggesting the need for new experiences unique to Grenada. The theatre production “A Slice of Spice” is a full evening of entertainment and dining depicting Grenadian folklore and unique heritage, with music and dancing and live steel pan. The food is distinguished by the local touch in that they pride themselves on serving up the best local food on the island. The Buffet provides a full range of local dishes excellently prepared by local Chefs. One can sit down, eat to their hearts content and listen to steel pan and then the show begins...all at $125EC/$50.00US alcohol included. Dolland explains ‘We have had a lot of big events here and a number have been sold out so over the first year we have had tens of thousands of people passing through here.” A lover of cricket Dolland met museum curator Phil Daniel an avid “Calypso Cricket” fan in 2007. Daniel had followed West Indies Cricket for a number of years as a photographer. Over the years he accumulated a lot of memorabilia from various auctions so he came to Grenada with this idea of a West Indies cricket museum. Dolland loved the idea, and proposed a partnership. This proved to be a success as the first Museum was housed at the National Stadium. The museum was relocated later to the Spice Basket upon completion. “Caribbean people are not too attracted to museums however, the English visitors seem to have the idea of visiting a museum within their DNA. We see the greatest volumes from them,” Dolland observes. Spice Basket recently decided to add another attraction the world’s first Nutmeg Museum. “So every person coming to Grenada can find something of interest to visit here at Spice Basket.” The entrepreneur concludes, he’s received all the government
Spice Basket
Dinner Theatre: Colouful and highly entertaining concessions they were entitled to. “A project of this nature may take another 3 years to fine tune, we want to upgrade our acoustics and stage lighting for instance, so its important that we keep the concessionary lines open so that we can complete our investment.” Spice Basket has a very comprehensive website outlining their shows, and services with an accomplished staff to help. No trip to Grenada would be complete without catching the ‘Slice of Spice Dinner Theatre” Call for reservations 1 473 437 9000 or email ?[??? ?X?X?\??]?[?YK???H ??˜?X?X?\??]?[?YK???B???X?H?\??]\??YH ? H?\?X??X[??&\??\??[?? H?X??]]\?][H ????\?[?\???[?YK???B??L???