All set!

Tropical Storm Harvey may have hindered the start of CARIFESTA XIII, but the show will go on.

At a news conference yesterday evening at his office at Sky Mall, Haggatt Hall, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stephen Lashley, announced that the official opening ceremony, originally planned to come off yesterday evening, will now take place on Sunday, August 20, starting at 5:30 p.m. with the pre-show beginning at 4:30 p.m. and all 27 delegations are expected to be in attendance. He said the decision to move the event to Sunday was taken after a meeting with key stakeholders and the host country management committee yesterday.

Despite the change, Lashley said the budget for the festival remains intact. He said there is a cap on the budget and there is no intention to supersede it.

“We haven’t lost anything. We’ve had to reschedule the opening ceremony; the good thing about it is that weather system occurred at the very beginning and the CARIFESTA period runs from the 17th of August to the 27th,” he noted.

Lashley said that the parade which has been planned will still precede the opening ceremony, leaving via the Nelson Gate at Queen’s Park promptly at 3:30 p.m. into Kensington Oval. The Culture Minister added that any parents accompanying children who are taking part in the parade, will be allowed free entry into the event, and he is asking them to contact the main co-ordinator, Alison Sealy-Smith, for passes.

The other major changes to the calendar of events for the 10-day festival, he said, relate to the Youth Village which was slated for yesterday, but which will now open this morning at 9 a.m. at the Barbados Community College and to the Rock Hall Living Museum. He indicated that the latter event originally scheduled for this Sunday, will now take place on August 27 as a result of the change to the opening ceremony.

All other events, he said including the Grand Market and Buyers’ Shopping Mall will get under way tomorrow as planned, starting at 10 a.m. and running to 10 p.m. The opening ceremony for that event is scheduled for 12 noon and the Film Festival will also start today.

“Already we have a number of delegations here in Barbados, more will be arriving later today [Friday], but all systems are go. The Secretariat remains of course very focused on ensuring that all of the accreditations and the arrangements that are necessary as the delegations arrive are promptly provided and so far that has been going quite smoothly,” he said.

Lashley added, “CARIFESTA continues to be one of the major events that brings our region together and we want to ensure that the experience that Barbados provides along with our fellow delegations is one that creates an environment that we can feel that brotherly and sisterly Caribbean love and spirit.”

With that in mind, he gave the assurance that the Royal Barbados Police Force is well prepared security wise to handle the event. Lashley said there is a robust security plan in place ensuring “extremely high and tight” security across all the venues for the festival so that the safety of participants and patrons alike is maintained.

Meanwhile, Festival Director, Andrea Wells speaking to the delegations’ arrivals into Barbados in the wake of the passage of Tropical Storm Harvey, said that 85 per cent of expected participants are here already or have called to confirm they will be arriving on delayed flights. (JRT)