Georgetown: A Guyanese delegation consisting of over 50 persons will be heading to Suriname later this years as preparation for Carifesta XI.
The Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) was initiated by the heads of government of the Caribbean Community in 1972 to celebrate the arts, foster a vision of Caribbean unity and to positively advance Caribbean culture regionally and internationally.
According to Culture Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, “Right now we have a committee and we have a number of persons within the Ministry who is part of that committee, they have been in touch with their Surinamese counterparts and based on the guidelines we will be selecting our delegation…“We’re looking at a delegation of a minimum 50 persons but a lot of people are indicating interest so we will see how that goes.”
He said Guyana’s contributions to the celebrations is directed by Suriname’s replica, since it is different from Carifesta XI that was held in Guyana
“At this time we are guided by the requirements of Suriname because they would be using a different model for Carifesta 11 not the same how we did it in Carifesta 10, this is a different model and therefore we will have to subject ourselves to their guidelines.”
Collin Granderson, Assistant Secretary Foreign Community Relations Caricom explained that “Culture For Development” will be the theme for this Carifesta XI which will focus on culture as the core for the Caribbean identity.
Granderson is encouraging all member states to participate in the festival.
“It is another opportunity to celebrate the cultural expressions to promote cultural diversity and to scale up cultural industry development by creating a market place with our festival, it is also a forum through which we can transfer our cultural heritage to our youth so that they can also experience it, live it, take ownership and contribute to safeguarding our cultural heritage.”
Carifesta XI will be held in Paramaribo Suriname from August 16-25 and it is a celebration of Caribbean culture diversity and promoting central role of culture in economic social and human development
The Surinamese Government offered to host the event this year, the multidisciplinary festival will showcase the cultural expressions of artists in over 30 countries in the Caribbean region.
Opening and closing ceremonies extended grand cultural market and trade fair will include fashion focus, culinary arts, visual arts, symposia, performing arts: theater, dance, music and storytelling, youth focus, community festivals, super concerts, film festival, capacity building: workshops, meetings and networking events, traditional/folk village incl. Indigenous and maroons.
Other festival elements will also find a home in or around the grand cultural market venue such as visual arts exhibition, literary arts, symposia, fashion, storytelling events, performance art, culinary arts, and trade fair.
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