GREATER GEORGETOWN, Guyana – When the curtains come up on the Caribbean’s largest festival of the creative arts (CARIFESTA X), in Guyana, on Friday, August 22, the Region’s 14.5 million peoples and the rest of the world will pause in awe to enjoy the unfolding of a ten-day magical mosaic of music, dance, drama, culinary arts, folklore, art and literature as the Caribbean celebrates, for the tenth time, its unique cultural heritage under the theme: One Caribbean; One Purpose, Our Culture, Our Life.
The first scene and tone-setter, which is the opening ceremony in the 15,000 seating capacity Guyana National Stadium at Providence on the East Bank of the Demerara River, will be televised live and also beamed via satellite between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Caribbean Time.
The lone female and the youngest artistic director of any CARIFESTA, Dr Paloma Mohamed Martin said, “large birds will fly; horses from Guyana’s Rupununi Region will dance; Jaguars will prowl; people will land from the sky; glyphs and nymphs will leap from the stadium floor as over three thousand performers transform a cricket ground into a Caribbean world of magnificence.”
All these elements, she said, will come together in an unprecedented theatrical production titled Celegacy – a production of a magnitude which she asserted has never before been attempted in the Festival’s thirty-six year history.
Dr Mohamed explained that Celegacy, the name given to the opening of the event is a coinage of the words “celebrate” and “legacy” to indicate a celebration of our Caribbean legacy that will project the Caribbean to the world as an important producer of cultural products.
The opening show according to Dr Mohamed seeks to trace the magnificence of the Caribbean in its many aspects, “from the diverse origins of its many beautiful peoples to the vast natural resources resident in the Region and the important philosophical contributions that the Region has made to Caribbean and world culture.”
With the burden of proof in her small yet capable hands, Dr Mohamed intends to make this Festival a memorable one, not just for the Caribbean artistes and peoples but one in which the world will watch with amazement and marvel at the diversity in unity, the talent, the artistry, the camaraderie, the character and strength of Caribbean Peoples.
CARIFESTA X will be declared open by His Excellency Bharrat Jagdeo, the President of the Republic of Guyana as a triumphant display of fireworks dimples the sky over Guyana. Also expected to speak are Suriname’s President, His Excellency Drs. Ronald Runaldo Venetiaan, who has lead responsibility for Community Development and Cultural Co-operation (including Culture, Gender, Youth and Sport) in the Quasi-Cabinet of the Conference of Heads of Government, Guyana’s Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony, and His Excellency Edwin Carrington, CARICOM Secretary-General.
CARIFESTA X promises more than 100 events that will spread over Guyana’s wide geographic expanse of nearly 20 venues, each of which has been outfitted with the necessary accessories and décor for the particular event it hosts.
