Vujaday Music Festival

Co-founder / Head of Finance

Vujaday Music Festival is a 5-day destination festival in Barbados featuring over 50 artists at 10 unique venues around. Founded in 2017, it was the first electronic music festival on the island. As part of a partnership with Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) and the Barbados Ministry of Tourism to attract young adults for the island, Vujaday brought over 2,000 travellers to the island in its first two years. The events resulted in over $5,000,000 USD in economic impact and and online media reach of over 150 million around the world. A full touristic experience, attendees are able to see the entire island, with the events moving to a different venue each day and night. Unfortunately due to government regulations, Vujaday was postponed from 2020-2022, but it hopes to make its return in 2023.

Vujaday has been an incredibly challenge endeavor. It was my first experience leading fundraising for a project, and the infamous ‘Fyre Festival’ occurred during our first week. Presenting an already risky business investment during one of the most publicized disasters in entertainment history required communicating that we were a brand that investors would trust. I was fortunate to have an experienced group of promoters, event producers and the Barbadian as business partners. As Head of Finance, I was responsible for providing incredibly detailed budgets and financial models to support our communication. After our inaugural event in 2018, we grew attendance by 25% for our second year. Our third year was projecting to be our biggest event yet, but unfortunately the island was locked down due to covid two weeks before the event.