By Francis Quamina Farrier
GUYFESTA – the Guyana Festival of the Creative Arts – like the Cavalcade of Sports, has not been held here in the Cooperative Republic of Guyana since the late 1980s. That is, over 30 years. It will be noted that all of the developed countries pay great importance to sports and culture. We all witnessed, either directly or on our television screens, the strong competitions at the recent Summer Olympics which were held in Tokyo and the glory which those who won medals brought to their countries. We also witnessed the role which cultural productions played at the opening and closing ceremonies. While the members of the Guyana contingent did not win any medals, their very presence at the 2021 Games was a step closer, and in the hearts of many Guyanese is the resolve “Next time.”

From time to time, over the years, cultural groups such as the Chinese have sent performing arts groups to Guyana, which have displayed the music and dance of China to the Guyanese people. Their performances at the National Cultural Centre are memorable to all who have had the pleasure of seeing them. In more recent times, the Chinese government has sent ferry boats as gifts to Guyana. The question, as posed in the headline of this article is, “Whatever happened to Guyfesta?” which was successfully staged on over six occasions across a 20-year period of the 1970s and 1980s. There are those events which ought never to be left behind; goat racing, cross country running, swims across the Demerara River from Georgetown to Vreed-en-Hoop and similar events which kept the citizens of Guyana not only entertained but with a feeling of being citizens of a vibrant country in which even ordinary citizens were allowed to do extraordinary things—exposing their creative talents at GUYFESTA being one of the events.

During a recent conversation with cultural celebrity singer/songwriter Hilton Hemerding, who composed the two patriotic songs, “Beautiful Guyana” and “Going up the Potaro” among others, he recalled a GUYFESTA session at Kamarang on the Upper Mazaruni River at its tributary, the Kamarang River. A young female Indigenous participant came on stage and began to sing his popular composition, “Beautiful Guyana” unaccompanied. Stopping the participant as she entered the song’s second stanza, then leaving the adjudicators’ table, Hemerding got his guitar and joined the young female singer on stage. Her rendition of that patriotic song was so perfect that it earned her a well-deserved Certificate of Excellence. Being accompanied by the composer of the song on the guitar was the icing on the cake, so to speak, and one of the iconic moments of GUYFESTA. “I couldn’t imagine that my song, ‘Beautiful Guyana’ was not only popular in Georgetown and along the coast, but also all the way in the deep hinterland,” Hemerding recently told me. That, of course, was long before radio stations were set up in various hinterland communities. At that very GUYFESTA, a Group which had travelled from Purima on the Upper Kamarang River, did a unique rendition of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, which earned them a Certificate of Excellence also. After their stage performance, they were invited to repeat their prize-winning performance on the bank of the Mazaruni River. That was video recorded and later broadcast on the VCT Television Network on the coast. Can one juxtapose that scene with a choir of 100 performing that very Handel’s composition in the St. George’s Cathedral?

While many performers shine like stars while on stage, things went wrong for some of them from time to time. There was one instance when a participant actually sabotaged his own performance and a chance at earning a Certificate of Excellence. The singer who possessed a very pleasant singing voice, had registered to sing “Only the Lonely.” However, when he went on stage he began to sing “I’m a lonely man.” Confused, the musicians who had already been accompanying him, all stopped playing, and calmly left the stage. The singer was then left standing all alone on the stage and indeed, a lonely man as the audience roared with laughter. While there were those awkward and embarrassing incidents by a few of the participants at GUYFESTA, there were many terrific performances which earned the performers Certificates of Excellence and a ticket to the GUYFESTA Finals in Georgetown. Most of those performances were of international standards and would earn the approval of international audiences. Performing at the Finals was always a big deal for GUYFESTA performers since members of the audiences included many VIPs such as the President, Prime Minister, Minister of Culture and other national celebrities.

GUYFESTA also gave the Ministry of Culture the opportunity to have culturally creative citizens residing in all the 10 Regions of the country, the opportunity to display their performing and other creative talents to the rest of the nation. It unearthed some of the best talents that Guyana boasted at the time. Individuals, churches, schools, clubs and even family groups and all types of social organisations were involved in GUYFESTA. Newly written plays and poems were created—many with current themes. For example, if there was a GUYFESTA now, many of the calypsos, poems and plays would be about the COVID-19. Back in the day of GUYFESTA, pieces about HIV and AIDS surfaced quite a lot. National unity was also another popular theme of songs and poems which were presented, many of them being awarded the Certificate of Excellence.

Not only were the themes about national unity, but quite a number of group entries were multi-ethnic. It was obvious that GUYFESTA was partly a means of racial cohesion for many persons who were involved with GUYFESTA. That cultural festival did not only discover new talent, it also encouraged and gave a sense of pride, value, purpose, belonging and direction to creative talents regardless of genre – literary, performing or visual.

Many citizens who participated in, or were members of audiences at GUYFESTA feel that it should be brought back and let Guyanese of the present generation with performing talents get the opportunity to showcase their talents and entertain their fellow Guyanese. Such an event, they feel, will continue to forge this country into a nation of “One People, one Nation with one Destiny” of cohesion.