CARIFESTA XIV Raised Bar for Technical and Marketing Standards – ASG Slater

CARIFESTA XIV has raised the bar for technical and marketing standards of the festival.

That was the sentiment shared by Assistant Secretary General for Human and Social Development at the CARICOM Secretariat Dr. Douglas Slater at the Closing Ceremony for the fourteenth staging of the Caribbean Festival of Arts. The ceremony was held at the Queen’s Park Savannah on Sunday August 25 to close the curtains on the culturally iconic ten-day mega festival.

Dr. Slater said this CARIFESTA has been a vibrant exciting experience of sharing and showcasing CARICOM’s rich culture as well as the culture of many visiting artists and experts from outside of the Region. Showering congratulations on the Prime Minster of Trinidad and Tobago the Hon. Keith Rowley and Minister of Culture Community Development and the Arts Hon. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, he thanked them  for successfully organizing and delivering a space where everyone could connect, share and invest.

Trinidad Culture Minister Hon. Nyan Gadsby-Dolly in her remarks at the ceremony said CARIFESTA XIV was a  success and proclaimed that it left people wanting more. She said the festival has impacted how the Region values Caribbean identity and shifted paradigms. She said Trinidad and Tobago was proud of hosting the Region. She compared the energy of CARIFESTA  XIV to a cultural super nova exploding in the hearts and minds of people and quoted one of the Brand Ambassadors and a performer at the Island Beats Super Concert “Voice” stating:

“This star is ‘far from finished’! CARIFESTA will continue to endure throughout the chapters of the Caribbean’s history, intensifying an already luminous glow on the Region’s premiere artistic expression.”

The next CARIFESTA will be hosted in Antigua and Barbuda in 2021. Minister Gadsby-Dolly in a symbolic ceremony passed a baton to Hon. Daryll Matthew, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Sports, Culture, National Festivals and the Arts.

There was also a range of performances that brought down the curtains on  CARIFESTA in true creative and expressive style, using carnival costumes and folk arts to position the Caribbean as a metaphorical rain-forest.

Source: CARICOM TODAY