(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) All is set for the launch of Caribbean Festival of Arts, CARIFESTA Month on 1 September 2006 in thirteen administrative districts of Trinidad and two administrative districts in Tobago. This exciting national initiative will capture 54 villages in a series of national celebrations leading towards the official opening of CARIFESTA IX on 22 September 2006.
CARIFESTA is coordinated by the Interim Festival Directorate (IFD), the regional advisory body to CARICOM. The IFD is one of the transitional arrangements in the new management structure of CARIFESTA.
For CARIFESTA IX the IFD comprises Trinidad and Tobago, the current host; Suriname, the immediate past host; The Bahamas, the immediate future host; the Chair of the CARICOM Task Force on CARIFESTA, the Chair of the Regional Cultural Committee, a representative of the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors, officials of the CARICOM Secretariat and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
The IFD is supported by a Host Country Management Committee, HCMC; comprising specialists in a wide range of skills and expertise in areas such as programming, logistics, media, arts and culture, marketing and merchandising. The Chair of the HCMC is the Hon. Joan Yuille-Williams, Minister of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago.
CARIFESTA IX will be the first in which elements of the “new CARIFESTA model” as endorsed by CARICOM Heads of Government in Grenada in July 2004 are incorporated. Signal events like a Jazz Concert, Fashion Show, Calypso Monarch Competition and Super Concerts featuring pan, calypso, reggae, zook, soca, chutney and gospel will be among the main new attractions in which artistes with regional and international recognition will perform. Special attention is given to the development of cultural industries through the traditional Grand Market and the Cultural Industries Trade Fair which will be located at the National Stadium along with a Culinary Arts Centre and a mobile Caribbean Book Fair and Film Festival. The Youth Focus, a Children’s Village, symposia and workshops, culinary, indigenous peoples and philatelic art are among the other highlights of CARIFESTA IX.
CARIFESTA IX will be staged 22 September-1 October 2006 in Trinidad and Tobago under the theme “Celebrating Our People: Contesting The World Stage.”
