With a contingent of 80 individuals, Team Saint Lucia is hoping to make a statement with its presentation at CARIFESTA Fourteen.
With a mix of theatre, music, literary arts, performance poetry, traditional performances, visual arts, craft and fashion, the Cultural Development Foundation says this year its participants understand clearly the intention of the festival. Artistic Director for CARIFESTA’s Team Saint Lucia, Drenia Frederick, says Saint Lucia continues to make successful contributions to the arts in the region, and CARIFESTA is no different. “There is a nouveau cultural revolution led by innovation and a renaissance of folklore, with reference to A Little Folk Tale. Invariably, this year’s CARIFESTA presentation is a reflection of the new wave of artistic expression. Our approach this year is to merge various genres of the performing arts, (arts, craft, culture), foster synergies amongst the more experienced artistes and the younger ones, showcase a contribution of Saint Lucia’s next generation of performers,” Frederick says.
This year’s presentation will include performances of La Woz, and Masquerade, as well as A Little Folk Tale. Fredericks says Saint Lucia needs to show the world its authenticity.“La Woz and the Jab ritual have never been done at a CARIFESTA and I think we need to show the rest of the world that there is more to Saint Lucia than what you see all the time; the quadrille. We have explored that, and what we did with those young persons was to invite resource persons to speak to them about the cultural forms. Imagine, we took them to Belle Vue to see a séance, and that was the first time some of them had ever experienced that, much less gone to Belle Vue. I was pleasantly surprised with how they opened up themselves to receive it and understand that you can enjoy yourself with our tradition and you can take it and innovate; not interfering with the root of it, but to create something else,” Frederick unveils.
The Cultural Development Foundation is thankful for the contributions of all those who have invested in this year’s participation including the Government of Saint Lucia, in particular, the Minister responsible for Culture and Creatives Industries Sen. Hon. Fortuna Belrose.
“I think now there is an understanding of what the event is and I’d like to thank Minister Belrose in particular for her support. I must say that she attends every single activity and gets involved, and her support in terms of taking a chance on a group of young persons, believing in the process and believing in that group of young Saint Lucians to go out there and do well. It says a lot,” Belrose says. CARIFESTA XIV will take place in Trinidad and Tobago from the 16th -25th of August 2019.