‘Great opportunity to shape Caribbean unity, identity’

Andrea Wells, Festival Director of CARIFESTA XIII views the upcoming event as a way to achieve greater union among the Caribbean.

Speaking at the launch of Youth Talk at CARIFESTA Youth Village, that took place at the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) headquarters on Thursday evening, Wells expressed the excitement she felt because “this will be the second time Barbados had the incredible opportunity to host such an event since 1981.”

“It is a very important tool for forging a greater sense of Caribbean unity and Caribbean identity,” she said.

She noted that for a long time, CARIFESTA was the perfect mechanism for educating, building awareness, challenging people, shaking them up and making them think differently about themselves and their culture, as well as their place in the wider world.

“CARIFESTA has been a very important tool to accomplishing all of these objectives and of course, the legacy that it leaves behind. We’re still feeling the benefits of the legacy of having hosted it in 1981, and we expect that this second hosting that Barbados is privileged to lead will take us to further heights in the development of our arts, our culture, our heritage and our understanding of the Caribbean,” she said.

The Festival Director noted that they had ten days, from August 17 to 27, packed with fun-filled activities in dance, music, theatre, culinary arts, literature and visual arts. She added that the activities will have an impact on every parish in the island and noted that they planned to have activities for children, as well as free and paid events that will be affordable and accessible to the average person.

She revealed that they were expecting 21 national delegations which would be sponsored by various regional states, both CARICOM and non-CARICOM and added that they planned to have a Youth Village, which is a “very important core plank of activity for the festival.”

She explained that it was going to be an informal event that was established and managed by the host country. Wells remarked that it would be shaped by the visiting youth delegations, as most delegations will have a component of youth.