分类： entertainment

Marva Williams, Chief Executive Officer of the Discover Dominica Authority (DDA), has hailed her team’s exceptional performance in delivering the 26th iteration of the iconic World Creole Music Festival (WCMF), a three-day musical extravaganza that lit up Windsor Park Sports Stadium from October 23 to 25. This year’s lineup boasted a star-studded roster of global and regional talent, including multi-platinum American R&B artist Ne-Yo (real name Shaffer Chimere Smith), Trinidadian soca legend Machel Montano, reggae icons Capleton and Maxi Priest, dancehall star Alkaline, beloved Dominican bouyon performer Asa Bantan, and Haitian compas band Klass, among many other celebrated acts.
In her post-event review, Williams highlighted notable operational improvements that directly addressed longstanding feedback from festival attendees, particularly the streamlined transitions between performances that had previously drawn complaints for lengthy delays. She noted that while the entire event was not without minor imperfections, the on-site entry experience had been nearly perfected, with zero formal complaints submitted by patrons regarding access processes this year.
Williams emphasized that the DDA operates on a continuous improvement cycle for the annual event, conducting full post-mortems after each edition to identify gaps, refine workflows, and elevate the overall attendee experience year over year. She underscored the rarity of the WCMF’s 26-year legacy, noting that the festival would have already marked its 30th anniversary if not for interruptions from natural disasters and the global COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike many other Caribbean regional festivals that have faced declining attendance, rebranding, or full revamps to stay viable, the WCMF has retained its unique core identity rooted in Creole cultural heritage, a distinct feature that sets it apart from competing events across the region.
Responding to circulating public concerns that the festival was drifting away from its Creole cultural origins, Williams firmly refuted the claims, explaining that new complementary elements added to the program are designed to expand the event’s reach, boost global visibility for Dominica as a tourism destination, and strengthen the festival’s long-term relevance, rather than dilute its foundational Creole identity.
Williams acknowledged that this year’s staging presented unprecedented operational hurdles, far different from the landmark 25th anniversary celebration held the previous year. She attributed the unusual challenges to widespread global external factors impacting events and travel worldwide, including growing public anxiety around international travel and sharp spikes in diesel and gasoline costs that have driven up airfare prices, limiting the number of regional and international attendees able to travel to Dominica for the event.

At a vibrant pre-event press conference ahead of Dominica’s iconic World Creole Music Festival (WCMF), celebrated Haitian-American content creator Jessie Woo delivered a glowing, heartfelt endorsement of the Caribbean island nation, framing it as an unmissable, almost magical destination for travelers and culture lovers alike.
This marked Woo’s third trip to Dominica, but her very first opportunity to attend the globally renowned creole music showcase. What made this visit even more meaningful, she shared, was that her mother joined her for the first time on the journey, turning a professional content creation trip into a deeply personal family memory. Even with persistent back and mobility challenges, Woo’s mother pushed herself to try kayaking for the first time and completed the scenic hike to the famous Emerald Pool natural site, a moment the content creator described as one of the most special parts of their entire stay.
Woo highlighted the unmatched warmth and genuine hospitality of local Dominican residents, noting that every interaction she and her mother had during their stay left a lasting positive impression. She also voiced palpable excitement to catch performances by beloved local Dominican artists at the festival, including TK International and Shelly from the popular Signal Band, and stated she intends to return to the island for extended visits whenever her schedule allows.
Woo was not the only international creative invited for the festival: she was part of a curated cohort of global content creators and social media influencers brought to Dominica by local tourism authorities to immerse themselves in the nation’s unique culture, share authentic on-the-ground experiences with their global audiences, and amplify the reach of the annual WCMF. During the same press gathering, Marva Williams, Chief Executive Officer of the Discover Dominica Authority (DDA), called on all the visiting digital creators to leverage their platforms to broadcast the festival’s vibrant energy, the island’s natural beauty, and the richness of Dominica’s creole heritage to viewers across every corner of the world.

In a significant 20 October 2026 ruling from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court’s Court of Appeal, the Eastern Caribbean Collective Organisation for Music Rights (ECCO) has successfully overturned a prior dismissal of its copyright infringement lawsuit against event organizer Neon Briggs and the Attorney General of Dominica, sending the long-running dispute back to the High Court for further proceedings. The original claim stemmed from the 2024 PINKNIC Carnival fete, a public entertainment event hosted at the Roseau Botanical Gardens, a state-owned property, where no public performance licence had been secured from ECCO before multiple copyrighted soca tracks were played for attendees. The initial case had been thrown out by Master Cenac-Dantes on 20 December 2024, who ruled ECCO lacked sufficient legal standing to bring the infringement action, citing a prior judicial decision in the Mega-Plex case as precedent. A three-judge panel led by Chief Justice Margaret Price Findlay, alongside Justices of Appeal P. Nicola Byer and Acting Justice Gerard St C. Farara, unanimously disagreed with that earlier finding, ruling that the lower court official had improperly applied the Mega-Plex precedent, which never established a blanket ban on ECCO pursuing copyright enforcement actions across the region. The panel emphasized that disputed questions of copyright ownership and organizational standing could not be fairly resolved without a full trial, additional supporting evidence, and formal cross-examination of relevant witnesses. The ruling clarifies a critical nuance under Dominica’s 2003 Copyright Act: full assignment of specific standalone rights, including the public performance right, is legally permissible even when an organization does not hold full ownership of every copyright associated with a given musical work. The disputed tracks named in the original claim include popular regional hits such as *Bacchanal Rampage*, *Cho (Hot Head)*, *Balance Batty*, *Like It Like This/Like It Like That*, and *Bottle of Rum*. McCarthy Marie, ECCO’s local representative in Dominica, noted he had spent extensive time compiling all relevant assignment agreements and supporting documentation to verify ECCO’s legal ownership of the public performance rights for the listed works. “This ruling explicitly confirms that properly documented assignments of public performance rights create a solid legal basis to file infringement proceedings,” Marie stated. “We have always maintained ECCO is the legitimate legal owner of these public performance rights for the full catalogue of works named in our claim, and we now have clear legal standing to enforce those rights.” The case will now return to the High Court, where parties will either reach an out-of-court settlement or proceed toward a full trial. The Attorney General retains the right to advance a remaining argument that the original filed claim fails to state a valid cause of action against the Dominica government, though any hearing for that argument must be presided over by a different master or judge to avoid perceived bias. The Court of Appeal additionally ordered that ECCO be awarded full coverage of all legal costs incurred during the appeal process, with costs to be formally assessed if the two parties cannot reach a mutually agreeable sum within 21 days of the 2026 order date. Marie, who notes he has worked on no fewer than 64 prior copyright infringement cases across Dominica before this one, frames the ruling as a make-or-break milestone for the island nation’s fast-growing but still underdeveloped domestic music industry. He highlighted recent public comments from Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announcing government plans to launch a dedicated industry development body to support local creators, noting that robust, clear copyright enforcement will form a critical foundational pillar for that upcoming initiative. The ECCO representative emphasized that the ruling has direct tangible economic benefits for working local songwriters and music publishers: legally enforceable public performance royalties create a steady, reliable stream of income for creators, and the ability to issue formal licences and pursue unauthorised use of works gives local Caribbean music measurable, sustainable commercial value. “If we truly want to build a thriving, long-term music industry here, the artists who write and produce our local music must be able to earn a fair living when their work is used publicly,” Marie explained. “Widespread respect for copyright rules and consistent, reliable royalty collection are non-negotiable if we want to turn music creation into a stable, viable career for the many talented creators across Dominica.”

Dominica News Online has unveiled exclusive behind-the-scenes multimedia assets captured during a vibrant October 2026 weekend cultural gathering, centered around a star-studded Sunday event that brought together regional music icons and local creative talent. The published media package includes two raw, uncut WhatsApp video clips recorded on October 26, 2026, alongside a high-resolution event header photograph taken the same month. The first video features a full, unscripted sit-down interview with the beloved local Dominican Signal Band, where members discuss their latest upcoming discography, their creative process rooted in Caribbean folk and soca fusion, and their excitement to perform for hometown crowds at the weekend showcase. The second shorter clip delivers a rare, intimate interview segment with globally celebrated British reggae legend Maxi Priest, who was in Dominica for a special guest appearance at the event, where he shares his longstanding connection to Caribbean island music scenes and teases new collaborative tracks with local Dominican artists. The event also highlights the rising profile of fast-growing local Dominican creative Diablo Dibala, who is listed as a featured headline talent for the Sunday festivities, marking a key milestone in his burgeoning career on the regional entertainment circuit. All multimedia assets are hosted directly on the official Dominicanewsonline.com news platform, offering fans across the island and the global Caribbean diaspora unfiltered access to the event’s most memorable behind-the-scenes moments.