CONFUSION reigned Sunday evening as thousands of Haitians converged on an already filled to overflowing Place Occide Jeanty, preferred venue for all major cultural events, in down-town Port-au-Prince to witness the spectacular closing of the 12th edition of the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA).The venue, which was where the opening ceremony of the 11-day event was also held, had already proven itself to be limited in terms of seating capacity, given that thousands of Haitians were forced to line streets in its environs, only to enjoy what they could hear but not see.
A scheduled 18:00hrs start, as expected, was shifted to 19:15hrs, with the semi-stadium-like structure almost filled to capacity at this time.
The Guyanese delegation was escorted by heavily-armed security and protocol officers to their seats, a mere arm’s length away from the Barbadian delegation.
CIMO officers, as members of Haiti’s Special Forces are called, acted as human barricade to prevent locals from occupying neighbouring space where officials from other countries were slated to be seated.
The start of the closing ceremony succeeded in painting a picture of a Haitian cultural show rather than a Caribbean one, since the performances were entirely centered on Haitian culture, via the performing arts.

TENSION FLARES

Midway through the programme, however, tension escalated when hundreds of Haitians began infiltrating the compound, which was by then bursting at its seams, having already exceeded its seating capacity of 4000 – 5000, and standing room for just 2000.
Several minor fights broke out between security personnel and Haitians, with the latter gaining the upper hand, and forcing themselves to sit in places reserved for visiting delegations.
At this point, several countries, among them 2017’s host country Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda hurriedly exited the compound under the watchful eyes of armed security, and police and protocol officers. Guyana would leave not too long after this.
Three Barbadian women, who were inadvertently left behind, were eventually forced to stand, due to the limited space which was now entirely occupied by locals. They were overheard expressing fear at the situation, which was fast becoming out of control.
Some members of the Guyanese delegation, too, were forced to stand to facilitate Haitians, since the segregation between the locals and the officials had been eroded.
Fear in the minds of Guyanese had mounted, given that a few members were robbed at the same venue, following the opening ceremony.

SHOW GOES ON
Nevertheless, the show went on, with participating countries finally being given the opportunity to form part of the evening’s programme of events.
A Haitian dance group, ‘Dance for life’, nailed it with their semi hip-hop, breakdance and acrobatic styles of dancing. Their transition to Haitian music from instrumentals was so expertly done, it brought the crowd to its feet.
Performances were also done in song by a St. Lucia group; a Dominican who performed a song in Dominican Creole; a Belezian dancer who did a skillful ‘Ostrich Dance’; Jamaican dancing to the popular Bob Marley tune, “No woman No Cry”; and another Jamaican number titled, ‘Revolution’.
An Indian dance piece from Guyana failed to win over the thousands in attendance over, as had happened in the preceding days.
Though beautiful in presentation, the fireworks which complemented the show had embarrassingly forced persons to seek cover, since people were burnt from the falling flames and the cardboard caps of the fireworks after they had exploded.
Media persons, too, had been omitted from the planning since there was no selected space to facilitate them. But contrary to this view, which was held by most of the officials forming part of the delegations, Culture, Youth and Sport Minister of Barbados, Stephen Lashley had praised the efforts of Haiti, which rightly deserved some form of acknowledgement.
Lashley, who received the CARIFESTA baton, proudly welcomed the Caribbean to Barbados come 2017, where he said, the country will be gifted the opportunity to show the Region its capabilities.
Michel Martelly, Haiti’s President, too, had praised the efforts of his countrymen and women for composing themselves during the 11-day event.
To this end, he underscored the importance of CARIFESTA to the development of Haiti and CARICOM’s aim of further integrating the Region.
The curtains were then brought down on the event, following a performances by Barbados and a Haitian band.

By Ravin Singh