The CARIFESTA Secretariat is moving aggressively ahead with its planning arrangements, having obtained a wealth of information from the visiting delegations about their areas of interests in the festival.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony noted recently that submissions have been encouraging and only a few of the 28 visiting delegations are to submit their information in this regard.
The participants, drawn from the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia were given up to June 15 to indicate in which of the 100 cultural events they will be participating.
These events include the performing, literary, culinary, philatelic and numismatic and visual arts, grand market, fashion focus, community festivals, youth and indigenous symposia among others.
At the end of May, participation in the literary arts was confirmed by Barbados, Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, Cayman Islands, Suriname, St Kitts, India, Curacao and Belize.
About nine countries had also confirmed participation in the culinary arts. They included Barbados, Anguilla, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Belize Indonesia, India and Curacao.
The philatelic arts exhibition that will feature a wide array of coins on display will have participants from Antigua, Trinidad and Tobago, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname and Belize.
Guyana’s participation in this exhibition will include a display of a wide array of coins in the pre and post-independence era. The Bank of Guyana has agreed to print a special CARIFESTA coin bearing the Coat of Arms on one side and the CARIFESTA logo on the other side..
Guyana will also be mounting its own stamp exhibition with more than 1000 stamps bearing significant features of Guyana’s flora and fauna. Other stamps will include Guyana’s independence and its industrial heritage among others. A special CARIFESTA stamp will be printed by the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC).
Trinidad and Tobago which is home to the famous steel pan, will be showcasing some of its newest pan instruments.
The twin island Republic will be partly represented by a 40-member team from the island’s national steel symphony who will be playing newly invented instruments referred to as “G-Pans.”
“G-Pans” have never been seen or heard outside of Trinidad and Tobago and will be showcased for the first time during CARIFESTA. The new pan group is expected to make its inaugural appearance at the National Cultural Centre on August 24.
The Guyana delegation is gearing to put forward an impressive steel pan performance with its national steel orchestra.
Folk music, dance and songs of the Turks and Caicos Islands can be expected. The island will be showcasing its national music ‘Ripsaw’ which is skillfully played with a common carpenter saw and kitchen utensils such as knives which serve as the rhythmic foundation for the rest of the band. The island’s national cultural group ‘Tuca’ will be performing.