|
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) It is now a fait accompli. Suriname will host the 11th staging of the Caribbean premier festival of the creative and performing arts in 2013; this after their first successful hosting in 2003. |
CARIFESTA
(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Festival of Arts –CARIFESTA-has been revived and restructured and will be held in Trinidad and Tobago from Friday the 22 of September to Sunday the 1st of October 2006.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community is expected to join with the rest of the world in re-thinking the role of culture in the development prospects for its peoples. This subject will come into sharp focus next week, when the Regional Cultural Committee (RCC) meets at their sixteenth session in Georgetown, Guyana.
The Region should expect a breath of new life and meaning, to the Region's premiere cultural festival, CARIFESTA, when a special meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development [COHSOD] on Culture is convened next week.
The two-day meeting scheduled for June 2-3 will take place in Georgetown, Guyana where a strategic plan for the reorganisation of CARIFESTA drafted at the first meeting of the CARICOM Task Force on CARIFESTA in Trinidad in March will lead the discussions on the way forward.
Salutations_
The juncture of the celebration of CARIFESTA VIII here in Suriname, and the 30th Anniversary year of the Caribbean Community, is an ideal time for the CARICOM Secretariat and our private sector partner, TELESUR to join resources in exploring the rich potential of mind, technology and the impact on art and culture in the Caribbean. Certainly, there is no better time and no more suitable place for this event to be taking place.
Your Excellency the President of Suriname and Mrs Venetiaan-Vanenburg
The Vice-President of Suriname
Speaker of the National Assembly
Honourable Ministers
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Artists
Participants
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is my pleasure to bring you greetings on behalf of the Secretary-General and staff of the Caribbean Community Secretariat and indeed the entire CARICOM family.
SALUTATIONS!
I am proud today as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community to welcome you all to CARIFESTA VIII in Suriname. This pride is heightened by the fact that this is the first time since my assumption of office in 1992 that this major Community event is being held in a non-English speaking country. Indeed it is only the second time in its 31-year history that CARIFESTA is being staged outside the English speaking Caribbean, having been held in Cuba in 1979.
When CARIFESTA VIII – the Caribbean’s premier cultural event - winds down on August 30th in Suriname, organisers hope they would have found the answer to one of the most important questions_ “where do we go from here.”
CARIFESTA is returning to the mainland in August 2003, in a year when both host country –Suriname- and its CARICOM sister states have a lot to commemorate - CARICOM marked its 30th anniversary and Suriname commemorated the 140th anniversary of slavery abolishment, 150 years of Chinese immigration, 130 years of Indian immigration and 115 years of Indonesian immigration, the cultural richness of the Caribbean will fall in the spotlight.