Interim Festival Directorate meets this week on CARIFESTA
The Interim Festival Directorate (IFD) – the body responsible for the planning of CARIFESTA along with the host country management team – is currently hosting its 17th meeting in Trinidad and Tobago.
The meeting began on Monday morning at the Trinidad Hilton and Conference Centre in Port-of-Spain. As agreed in the CARIFESTA Host Country Agreement which was signed in December 2018, the IFD provides strategic direction and oversight of the Festival in collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat and the Host Country. The IFD comprises representatives from the Regional Cultural Committee (RCC), the artistic community, the CARICOM Secretariat and specialists in areas such as media, intellectual property and marketing.
It is expected that at the meeting, the IFD will be provided with an update on the preparations for CARIFESTA XIV which will be hosted in Trinidad and Tobago 16-25 August 2019, under the theme ‘The Tangible and Intangible – Connect, Share, Invest’. Among the topics to be discussed are Registration and Participation, Logistics, Venues and Accommodation, Promotion, Marketing and Revenue Streams and Artistic Components and Programming. Other specific components of the Festival that will be addressed include the Marketplace for the Arts, Youth Village, Symposium as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
So far, 19 countries have confirmed their attendance at this iconic festival of the arts: 16 Caribbean Member States and Associate Members, along with Canada, Venezuela and Curacao.
CARIFESTA, first held in 1972, is the Caribbean Community’s premier art and culture festival. It’s main purpose, which was a mandate of the CARICOM Heads of Government, is to celebrate the arts, foster a vision of Caribbean unity while advancing Caribbean culture regionally and internationally. This roving event attracts artists and culture professionals from more than 30 countries in the Region and has been held 13 times across eight countries. Among the CARICOM Member States that have hosted this culturally iconic event are: Guyana (1972, 2008), Jamaica (1976), Barbados (1981, 2017), Trinidad and Tobago (1992, 1995, 2006), St. Kitts and Nevis (2000), Suriname (2003, 2013) and Haiti (2015). The Festival was held in Cuba in 1979.