Taxpayers may have to fork out an extra $20,000 if Government carries through with its plan to send a puffed-up Bermuda contingent to a Caribbean cultural festival this summer.

In April, The Royal Gazette reported that Development and Opportunity Minister Terry Lister said the number of participants for each island at the annual Carifest in St. Kitts and Nevis would be limited to 25.

But last week, programme co-ordinator Gary Burgess revealed that 40 people, including gombeys, dancers, chefs and organisers, are down on the list to take part in the August 17 to August 26 event.

And an extra 14 people's participation could be partially funded by Government if they manage to pay for some of it themselves.

An aircraft has been chartered via Meyer Travel to fly the group to the event at a cost of $600 per person.

In addition, their stay and meals at an all-inclusive hotel will cost $85 per person per night.

At $1,450 each, the extra people will bring the estimated bill for the venture up to $58,000, not including miscellaneous expenses.

Last week, Mr. Lister confirmed that 40 people, including himself, were down on the list to travel.

He said: "Most of the countries participating will exceed the 25-person limit anyway.

"They will just be using a system of rotation in which one group of people from their country will leave just as another group arrives.

"Unfortunately, we can't do it like that.'' Asked why it was necessary to take so many people, Mr. Lister said: "We felt that in order to have a fair representation of Bermuda, we needed to push up the numbers.

"It's really just a question of quality representation. We couldn't get a troupe of gombeys with less than 15 people, there needed to be about ten or so cooks and the Bermuda Dance Company had ten people in it also. When you add organisers to that it comes up to about 40 people.'' The Minister added that it was not decided whether 14 youngsters from the Parent Resource Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE) Bermuda, who would partially fund the trip themselves, would go and take part in a drug education workshop.