As preparations for the staging of the Seventh Caribbean Festival of Creative Arts (CARIFESTA), scheduled for August in St. Kitts and Nevis, gains momentum across the region, the Regional Cultural Committee (RCC) is expected to give priority attention to the status of these preparations when they meet for two days later this month in Tortola, British Virgin Islands.
The RCC will discuss a range of cultural matters impacting on the Caribbean cultural development and links with other regional and extra regional groupings at their Eleventh Meeting, starting 17 April, 2000. These will include CARICOM /Cuba Cooperation, and the Free Movement of Artists and Cultural workers within the region.
The Region’s cultural body will also address areas for further development in the Caribbean Music Industry Development Project (CARMID), as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded project comes to a close. The Caribbean Forum of ACP States (CARIFORUM) Cultural Centres which are in place in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Dominican Republic will also be considered, along with plans for new programmes to be established in Barbados, Haiti, Saint Lucia and Suriname.
CARIFESTA VII, the premier regional cultural festival, is one of two major activities this year in which the Caribbean will showcase its diversity in the Arts. The Caribbean will hit the international stage at Expo 2000 scheduled for Hanover, Germany in October, and will be in the spotlight on “CARICOM Day”, slated for 22 October, 2000.
The RCC, an advisory body to CARICOM Ministers of Culture, in looking at the progress of preparations for the staging of CARIFESTA VII, will also consider national activities in Member States during the designated CARIFESTA Weeks.
Thirty Caribbean countries are expected to be represented at the ten-day multi-disciplinary experience under the theme “Caribbean Arts and Culture … Reflecting, Consolidating. Moving on!” The Gala event starts on August 17, 2000. A varied programme of activities is being planned to reflect the artistic and other cultural concerns of children, youth and adults. The indigenous peoples of the Region will also take centre stage in the regional cultural celebrations, as “… the architects who laid the foundation and provided lessons that today form the basis for us to continue to move positively into the new millennium.”
