– improvements being made each year, says coordinator

THE children’s leg of the national Mashramani celebrations ended on a high note as just about 50 bands marched down the streets of Georgetown in their bright colours and pumped up spirits.

As is the norm, the march began at the Parade Ground and the hundreds of children from every region in Guyana made their way to the National Park. Their bright colours shone in the hot sun and the streets were lined with persons eager to catch a glimpse of what the children portrayed.

Administrator (ag) at the Unit of Allied Arts and the Children’s Mash coordinator, Lorraine Barker-King said, “Today’s event is basically to showcase our children’s talent in costume.”

This children’s parade was the grand conclusion to the string of children’s activities organised for Mashramani 2019. There were also dance, song, drama and masquerade events held. This year, all educational districts (each administrative region and Georgetown) were represented throughout the activities, according to Barker-King. The costumes will be retained for the larger, national Mashramani float parade which will be held on Republic Day, February 23.

“We have seen a lot of improvement in terms of the quality of performances [and] the types of movement [over the years],” she commented.

“The Unit of Allied Arts is the centre for the promotion of arts in schools. This unit is the only unit in the Caribbean that looks at the arts in that specific way. We have our schools doing dance, drama, music, physical education and visual arts.”

There were eight nursery school bands that crafted their designs under the theme of “Celebration of Flora and Fauna”; the primary bands designed under “Folklore”; the secondary bands doing their take on “Technology”; other children’s organisations “green industries” or “celebration of an organisation”; eight individual participants and the 10 regional bands.