By Jairo Rodrigues in Suriname
The City of Smiles … at least that is what the locals call it, Paramaribo, the Capital City of the Dutch-speaking South American nation, Suriname opens its doors today for the eleventh celebration of the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA).
Twenty-four countries are expected to be in Suriname for the biggest art and cultural festival in the region and Guyana’s contingent arrived in the festival city yesterday at around 19:30hrs Suriname Time (One hour ahead of Guyana Time).
Hundreds of Guyanese lined up to cross with the MV Canawaima at the 10:00hrs crossing and hundreds more were held up and made to wait for the 13:00hrs crossing. The Guyanese contingent for Carifesta XI includes performers in dancing, drama, music, crafts, visual arts, fashion and literature.
With a motorcade headed by Surinamese police, not more than twenty vehicles made u
p the Guyanese entourage. Guyanese fashion icon Sonia Noel, Special projects Officer of Guyana’s delegation to Carifesta, Lennox Canterbury, Presidential Communi-cations Officer, Kwame McKoy, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)’s Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and his family were in the long line of people who crossed the Surinamese border at Moleson Creek/South Drain. The city will welcome thousands of tourists from around the world, specifically artists and supporters from Guyana, Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Trinidad and Tobago, French Guiana, Dominica, Anguilla, Curacao, Peru, China, Chile, Barbados, South Korea, Indonesia, Haiti, St Lucia and Grenada.
The festival is the first to follow the model designed by the Caribbean Community’s Secretariat in 2004 to promote cultural heritage in the region and ensure that Carifesta is effective in its aims of strategically placing a platform for professional artists. Suriname is also the first country to welcome the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to the festivities.
Carifesta XI officially opens with a grand ceremony today at 18:00hrs Suriname Time at Independence Square in historic central Paramaribo, accredited as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 2002.The celebrations last for ten days and conclude on August 25th, 2013. Suriname also hosted the festival in 2003.
