As Linden seeks to wean itself off what appears to have become a permanent image as a “mining community,” next weekend’s River Front Festival marks the latest initiative to send a message to the rest of the country that the town offers far more than memories of a once thriving bauxite industry.
The organizers of the July 24-26 2015 event say that the River Front Festival “is a celebration of a uniquely wonderful part of Linden, and is a key resource in the social and economic development of the community.”
Sam Wright, who heads the team of community-based and private sector stakeholders who have put the event together insists that paying more attention to Linden’s river front could be the key to solving several of the community’s critical problems including environmental degradation, land-based contamination of the river and the marine environment, drainage and flooding, waste management, land-use planning and issues associated with the unemployment and underemployment, drug trafficking, touting and noise nuisance.
The river front includes the three banking institutions, nursery, primary and secondary schools, the community’s two municipal markets, eight churches and religious institutions, all of the boat crossings, the Mackenzie Bridge, most of the restaurants and bars, all of the pharmacies, the Linden Museum, the bauxite processing plant and the outfalls of eight creeks and drainage systems. Wright says that the erosion problems along the foothills, at Half-Mile, Victory Valley, Blueberry Hill and Amelia’s Ward are reflected in the discharges to the Demerara River at the river front. Additionally, the land along the Linden river front comprises much of the most valuable real estate in community.
No one questions the view that Linden is an economically depressed community, but residents have long evinced an abiding faith in their community. Over the years they have given their unstinting support to events like the annual Kashif & Shanghai Football Tournament and the Linden Town Day and on the basis of current evidence they appear ready to embrace the River Front Festival. As has been with previous local events, the festival will allow for brisk, even if short-term, commercial enterprises and a broad range of entertainment. This time around, the hope is that the community will reap longer term benefits from the event.
According to Wright, “the creation of a healthy, sustainable Linden is dependent on informed and enlightened solutions to the challenges of the river front. The Linden river front has demonstrable tourism potential including the opportunity for river and creek-based activities.
The recent construction of clubs, hotels and restaurants along the river front point to the preparedness of Linden’s entrepreneurs to invest in the area’s tourism potential. “The remediation of the wharf at Wismar offers a great opportunity for the berthing of pleasure crafts and other tourism-related vessels,” Wright adds.
Earlier this week, Wright told Stabroek Business that a critical goal of the festival is to highlight issues centred around the development of the river front and which are symptomatic of Linden as a whole, including waste management, traffic congestion, creating a convivial commercial environment and developing Linden’s entertainment and tourism potential. The organizers say that the River Front Festival seeks to celebrate the “river/land interface and its role in the development of Linden.” Additionally, it seeks to serve as an annual confirmation of the value and importance of this area of Linden. “No less important will be the role that the festival seeks to play as a celebration of the lives of all river communities and river folk in Guyana,” Wright said.
What cannot be overlooked is the coincidence between the staging of the festival and the social and economic challenges confronting a mining community where jobs are scarce, private sector opportunities are few and commercial activity is limited. Lindeners, it seems, are once again preparing to seize an opportunity to lift themselves out of the doldrums of social and economic challenges, though less than two weeks before the staging of the event the organizers were still short of the more than $2 million required to finance it.
Up until now funding has been provided through state grants as well as contributions from private sector entities including the expatriate gold-mining company Troy Resources, Courts Guyana, Bosai Minerals, Bai Shan Lin, SRKN Engineer-ing, Victor Wright and Beverley Pollard-Semple.
Several government entities are also stepping up to play their respective roles in a number of areas including, critically, waste management.
Wright says that a critical feature of the River Front Festival is its community stakeholder orientation, a concept that allows all of Linden to lay claim to ownership of the event. Some of the named stakeholders include restaurants and hotels located on the river front including the Riverview Hotel & Restaurant, Hymarra Park, Ice Rock Club, Hob FM Restaurant/Bar and Hyacinth’s Bed and Breakfast. No less central to the event are churches and social organizations situated along the river front. Other stakeholders include the Linden Chamber of Commerce, the Linden Fund Trust and the RDC/IMC Management/Planning Committee, the Festival is registered under the name, Samuel Wright Doing Business.
The Linden River Front Festival will feature what Wright says will be “continuous and simultaneous celebrations” at various locations along the river front with planned events reflecting activities that commonly occur in the various river front communities. “It focuses on the presentation of events over a shorter time span allowing for a branding of the pulse and potential of the river front and facilitating a holistic appreciation of its value and a fostering of a sense of public ownership and participation in its development and conservation,” Wright says, adding that the aim of the organizers is to have the festival become one of the premier community-based events in Guyana by 2018.
Some of key river front locations where major events are expected to be held include the Ice Rock Club, Coop Crescent, Riverview Hotel, Burnham Drive, Mackenzie/Wismar markets, Egbert Benjamin Exhibition and Conference Centre, Hymarra Park and various locations in Christianburg.
Over the weekend, scheduled events will include, popular entertainment, creative performances, vending, a riverside clean-up, a community breakfast/brunch, jazz and contemporary music performances, cycle races, a regatta, a film festival and a Timheri/Linden flotilla of boats,
The organizers are targeting attendance at the festival in the region of 2,000 persons over the weekend and are seeking to expand participation beyond residents of the community.
The festival will run from 17:30hrs on Friday and end at 18:00hrs on the final evening.
