GUYANA has officially received correspondence from the Carifesta committee to be part of this year’s activities in Trinidad and Tobago.
Minister of Social Cohesion, George Norton, in an invited comment, confirmed that the committee reached out to Guyana to send a team to Carifesta XIV.

The minister said work has begun at the level of the Department of Culture. The department is preparing a document which would be presented to Cabinet soon.
According to the minister, the document will include the budget for the team and the areas of participation.
In the past, Guyana participated in the areas of Visual Arts, Literary Arts, dance, fashion, craft, culinary arts, film/animation, and drama.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and The Arts of Trinidad and Tobago, for more than four decades, the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) has been a catalyst for the strengthening of regional integration among our Caribbean countries, artisans and cultural practitioners.

The ministry said that over the years, Caribbean nations have actively participated in the festival and used it as a catalyst to promote the arts and culture of their country. The festival is, therefore, a launching pad for the Caribbean to take centre-stage; bringing rich, vibrant, thought-provoking and exhilarating expressions of talent and skill to the world.

“In Trinidad and Tobago, the creative and cultural sectors are an integral part of our economy. Thus, it is with vigour that the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, through the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, sought to bid for CARIFESTA and subsequently won the bid to host the fourteenth instalment [of] CARIFESTA XIV in 2019,” said the ministry.

The country’s intention is to create the space, avenue and hub for participating nations to flourish and “connect, share, and invest” in the arts and culture of the Caribbean.
The 2019 festival will showcase a multi-talented cultural display in the visual and literary arts, storytelling, fashion, body art, craft, theatre, dance, music, film and news media from participating countries from the region and the diaspora.

The theme for this year’s Carifesta is “Connect, Share, Invest,” which the Carifesta committee says focuses on both the tangible and intangible aspects of cultural heritage and development and seeks to embody and facilitate the objectives of CARIFESTA XIV.