THE annual Rockstone Fish Festival slated for this weekend is expected to be the event of the year and preparations for its success are said to be 95% complete, Event Manager Lynette Benn has said. The tourism-driven event which takes place at the small riverine community of Rockstone in Region 10, is expected to see hundreds of patrons and participants. Benn said that the committee is currently upgrading the facilities used to host the two-day activity, so that everyone could fully enjoy what is in store. These include the regular activities such as the boat tours to beautiful destinations, fishing and cooking competitions, cycling races from Linden to Rockstone, nature trails, fish-deboning, fish-catching, and the largest-fish competitions. Added to that, there will be camping, picnics, tours to Gluck Island, swimming and fish-cooking contests.

Children will enjoy games such as rafting, tug-o-war, sal out etc. “This year we are going to have the scaling of the Tibikuburi, which is a very difficult fish to scale and we are looking forward to running off with the roast fish competition and the smoke fish competition; those are the two main events we want to make sure that they come off,” Benn said.
She revealed that the date was pushed back as the committee wished to show respect to the Hindu brothers and sisters during the Diwali weekend. Benn said that though the change in the date may result in the loss of supporters as many persons came in from overseas and had to return, in addition to the motor racing that is slated for this Sunday in Georgetown.
The Rockstone Fish Festival which is held in observance of Tourism Awareness Month, seeks to drive tourism in Region 10 by attracting patrons and fishers from all across Guyana. The idea for the festival was birthed by Mr. Donald Sinclair, Director-General of Tourism in 2006 when he was on a fishing excursion. He envisaged its potential for community-based tourism which prompted him to engage the residents of the community and together they created the blueprint for the festival.
The naturally accommodating environment includes open spaces for camping and easy access to the Paramakoushi River, its tributaries and nearby creeks. The community of Rockstone is about 18 miles from MacKenzie, and is known for its plethora of various black-water fishes such as haimara, bassa, arawana,arapaima, lukanani, hassa and perai, among others.