–with a turnout of well over 2000 for annual Fish Festival

By Naomi Marshall

THE Rockstone Tourism Association last weekend played host to yet another amazing and adventurous Fish Festival, which saw more than 2000 or so persons from all across the country descending on Rockstone, some 14 miles from Linden, for a fun-filled two days of angling.

The festival included boat tours to Golden Beach and Gluck Island, fishing competitions, cooking competitions, road races, nature trails, camping, music, meals, beverages and much more.
The event was declared open by Member of Parliament, Mr Audwin Rutherford on Sunday morning.
Seizing the opportunity, as a born Lindener, to sell Rockstone as a possible tourism destination, Rutherford said:
“This is a unique area; it is special. There is no other location in Guyana and in Region 10 that is so ideal for a fish festival.
“This is a feeding area for fish. The idea is for people to come not only today but other days during the year.”

President of the Rockstone Tourism Association, Ms Lynette Benn, told the Guyana Chronicle that while it was a bit on the quiet side on Saturday, things really began to heat up on Sunday, with persons coming by the droves from all corners to participate in the long list of activities the organisers had in store for them.
“Today, Sunday, the main events… the fish cooking, the fish catching, fish deboning, roast fish, baked fish… It’s strictly about fish here in Rockstone,” she said, adding:
“We do have a large crowd, even though the day is pretty young.
“I can assure you that by this afternoon, especially the crew from Linden, they are going to come out in their masses.”

GT POSSE

Richard Marsumali came all the way from Georgetown, along with nine others in two vehicles to be a part of the festival.
“We came up here this morning,” he said. “It’s nice; it’s my first time up here; I’m enjoying it so far.

“We didn’t catch anything, but it’s still fun and enjoyable to have somewhere you can enjoy in Guyana, in another location.
“So, all in all, it’s fun; the sun is warm.”
Second-timer, Jason Marcello of West Coast Demerara is a fisherman by trade, but was a bit disappointed when nothing seemed to be pulling on his rod after 45 minutes. “How I’m feeling right now, not so good. I ain’t catch nothing yet! Nothing seems to be biting at the moment,” Marcello said, adding that all he and his friends were really interested in was having a bit of fun.

“The excitement of just reeling in something; whatever it is; anything,” he said.
Ronald Barns, who has been living abroad but has been back home in Linden three years now, said it was his first time at the fish festival and it’s very entertaining. But they must fix the road.
Not only did persons attend the festival for the fun and excitement, but also for educational purposes.

Mackenzie High School Principal, Mr Haslyn Small brought out 26 of his Geography students to the event.
“This is a part of the Geography CSEC SBA 2018, and I’m looking at some factors that influence the fish festival here at Rockstone,” Mr Small said.

“We’re looking at the leisure activities; the infrastructure. When you come in, you would have seen the state of the road and so on; that can be a factor that can cause it to discourage people from coming in here.

“We also have the beautiful building there; that is the guest house. Then we have all these activities like the fish catching.
“So, all these activities help to promote the development of the Rockstone Fish Festival; we want to look at them and to see how best the students can analyze them.”

SUNSET
As the sun started setting, participants of the fishing competition began to bring in their catches onshore, drawing a crowd that was excited to see how they’d fared.
One contestant by the name of ‘Fish-pro’ caught a number of lukanani fish after several hours with his boat being stationed somewhere around Gluck Island.
“This is lukanani; people in foreign does call it peacock bass. I always enjoy coming Rockstone,” ‘Fish-pro’ said.

Another contestant named Ravi Persuad of Amelia’s Ward, Linden noted that Sunday was a wonderful day; a day he would not have trade for anything.
“As you can see,” he said, “I catch some nice fish and stuff like that; I wouldn’t trade it for nothing.
“This is my second fish festival. Fish festival is a great festival; everybody should come participate, be a part of the festival and stuff like that. It’s a great thing.”
MP Rutherford noted that this year’s festival might not have been the biggest he’s ever seen, but it was surely a celebration.

According to Ms. Benn, preparations for the Fish Festival consisted of the upgrading of the Guest House, which was in a deplorable state, and freshening up the washroom facility.
She said that whatever profits the organisation would have made from the festival this year will go towards the execution of a number of developmental projects.
“The plans we have for this year is that we want to do is strictly putting up about three to four log cabins, because that was the demand,” she said, adding:
“If we had cabins, I don’t think we would have been able to take off the crowd from this year.

“Rockstone is focusing on accommodating for eco-tourism.”
The first festival was organised in September 2006, and sold more than a thousand tickets. The event is usually held over two days, namely Saturday and Sunday.
The Rockstone Tourism Association was founded on December 21, 2006.