The now annual Main Big Lime, touted as a tourist attraction seemed to have been pulled off as an afterthought this year.

Early in the day, when one could have actually walked around and viewed the booths or perhaps purchased items, the crowd was at a minimum. Most likely this was a result of shopping burnout, as persons would already have tramped through city streets between December 15 and Christmas Eve, searching for bargains.

Later in the evening, thousands of mostly young people thronged Main Street primarily to 'lime'. At certain areas, walking was reduced to a shuffle. It appeared that no foresight had gone into the placement of booths on the street and there was no clear passage from one end to the next. 'Limers' caught in this shuffle found their oxygen levels lowered to where suffocation seemed a real possibility.

Beverage vendors would have had a real windfall that night as 'limers' sought to avert dehydration. Added to this, more than half of the street lamps on Main Street were unlit. And every music set in the city seemed to have been given a spot. For instance there was one close to Guyana Stores and another not far from the National Library. These competed and served to drown out the performers on stage near the Bank of Guyana.

From as early as 7:30 pm, chaos reigned on Main Street.

That is not to say that the activity is useless. In fact the idea of the 'lime' has real potential and in the right hands could possibly become the event it has been promoted as.

One way of doing this would be for the Ministry of Tourism to hand the organising of the event over to a non-governmental body - like the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana.

Ideally, the Main Big Lime should be used as the activity that ushers in Christmas, not ends it. Properly arranged, it could serve to lend a unique Guyanese flavour to Christmas in a way that has so far been missing. It would work wonders for the 'buy local' campaign, boosting the sales of painters, sculptors, and craftsmen in general. Designers et al could be encouraged to launch their 'season' at this event, offering Christmas gift ideas, decorations and curtains and even recipes.

Instead of planning the Main Big Lime to cater for the influx of visitors at Christmas time, the organisers would need to work towards making it the event visitors came for, then stayed on for Christmas.

Of course, none of this would happen overnight, but it would help if the activity had a fixed date. This way, it could be vigorously promoted overseas and persons could actually plan their holiday at that specific time.

An earlier start would allow for those exhibiting and selling craft to leave by a certain time to make way for the street party, which is certainly a popular part of the activity. And by all means they must have the boom box sets, but having fewer of them would reduce the confusion and risk of immediate hearing loss.

A change of name would not harm either. Instead of Main Big Lime, why not Main Street Fair, Main Street Christmas Fair or even Main Street Tourist Fair? After all, if one is promoting tourism, being bashful is not the way to do it. If one sets out to have a 'lime', then one can only expect it to taste sour.