The events director of Charterhouse Ghana, the organizers of the Ghana Music Awards Festival, Mrs. Theresa Ayoade has called for government’s support in the organization of this year’s Music Awards Festivals.

She made this call on a Kumasi based radio station last weekend, when responding to a series of questions regarding this year’s Ghana Music Awards Festival.

Many callers to the programme felt the awards were meant for Ghanaian Musicians based in Accra and challenged why most of the members of various committees of the Ghana Music Awards involved in the selection process were based in Accra.

She said that, the inability of the organizers to have representations from of all the ten regions on various committees was due to budget constraints.

Explaining further, she said the Ghana Music Awards is one event on the entertainment calendar in Ghana, which has celebrated the Ghanaian music very much and for all these years that the event has taken place, there hasn’t been any governmental support.

“The Ghana Music Awards has gained a national status and in every country the government supports the arts industry, but over here the government doesn’t. Everything is paid for by the private sector”, she said.

We are not asking for money .... but!

She continued that, they are not asking for money from the government, but the government may give them subvention since some of the facilities used for the event such as the venue and others are owned by the government.

“We pay as much as fifty million cedis for the Accra International Conference Center which is owned by government and this may be given to us for free as government’s support”, she added.

When asked whether they’ve presented any proposal to the government, she responded that, earlier they were working with the Ministry of Tourism but now that there has been one for culture and one for tourism, they will see if anything can be done to help them.

On gate proceeds she said, even though it may appear to the public as very expensive, it’s not enough to cover the budget for this event.

This year’s Ghana Music Awards Festival 2007 (Golden Jubilee Edition) is slated for May 1st, 5th and 6th 2007

The “Industry Awards and Highlife Nite” takes place on the 1st of May at the La Palm Royal Hotel.

This will be followed by the public awards nite on the 5th of May, 2007 at the Accra International Conference Centre.

The beach jam follows on the 6th of May, at the Labadi Pleasure Beach.