THE Guyana/Brazil Cultural Festival, first staged last year, is being repeated this  weekend, on Friday and Saturday nights.
The  venue is Bonfim, a town on the Brazilian side from Lethem and all the border-crossing requirements are being suspended to facilitate visitors and participants from Guyana.
Lethem businessman, Mr. Alfred Ramsarran, who is one of the Guyanese organisers, disclosed that Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Ms. Pauline Sukhai and Guyana’s Ambassador to Brazil, Mr. Kellawan Lall have been invited to attend and have indicated that they will patronise the event.
Ramsarran said the local contingent will include artistes associated with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and they are expected to leave Georgetown for Lethem by Thursday, latest, if not before so they can get ample opportunity to show off the Guyanese culture to Brazilians.
Also representing Guyana will be cultural groups  and individual artistes from villages in the North, South and Central Rupununi .
The Brazilians are likely to field a highly reputable group of musicians, singers and dancers from Bonfim and the State of Roraima and the two nights of entertainment will be complemented by culinary delights of both Brazilian and Guyanese origins.
The Guyana/Brazil Festival or Guy/Braz Festival was inaugurated last year when representatives of Lethem and Bonfim held a meeting and decided to stage it annually in the interest of enhancing cultural integration between the two border communities, by hosting it  alternatively.
The first took place at Lethem and was a resounding success and the second  should have been hosted in Bonfim since July 2011 but had to be postponed because of the devastation caused by flooding in both border communities around that time.

The Friday and Saturday nights events are scheduled to start at 18:30 hrs each evening.