Folk Festival is a 22-year-old event that was started by the then-Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), which has since been merged with Guyana Television Company and is now called the National Communication Network (NCN). “Folk Festival is an event that showcases Guyanese creativity, whether it be in dance, music, food, and our industrial development,” said Dr. Vibert Cambridge, one of the directors of the organising committee for Guyana Folk Festival, which is now being held in New York in the United States of America.

Dr. Cambridge shared the history and significance of the festival and what it means to Guyanese culture.
What is Folk Festival?
Folk festival, according to Cambridge, is a production of traditional games, sketches, folk music, songs, dances,
According to Cambridge, folk festival events were held in Guyana over the past 20 years on a few occasions but have now moved to New York for the past two years.

This year’s theme focuses on CARICOM at 50, recognising and celebrating its New York roots.
“This means that what we intend to do with those signature events in 2023 is to explore and identify the Caribbean ‘s presence in New York and how those experiences of living together, of unity, of inclusion, of sharing, how those kinds of values are lived and inspire CARICOM,” Vibert told Pepperpot Magazine.

According to him, CARICOM speaks about a resilient, unified Caribbean that is sharing in our social and economic benefits.
The focus is looking at how New York’s Caribbean experience speaks to this CARICOM aspiration.
“What we do know is New York’s Caribbean experience is a very old one. It stretches back into our Indigenous history. The Indigenous peoples of the Americas were in conflict, so there is archaeological evidence about the Tianos peoples, who are related to the Warraus of Guyana,” he said.

According to Cambridge, emphasis is now placed on relationships that can be traced back to the 17th century.
“In the 17th century, New York was a Dutch colony called New Netherland, a colony of the Dutch West Indian Continent. Berbice, Essequibo, and Demerara are colonies of the Dutch West Indian continent. So, what we are saying is that the Caribbean presence in New York came out of the 17th century,” Cambridge shared with the Pepperpot.

He noted that what is being celebrated is a Guyanese New York multiethnic, multilingual society at this year’s folk festival.
There will be “gyaaf-styled” conversations that will draw upon biography and autobiography to identify and recognise Caribbean engagement in and contributions to the development of New York’s economic, social, political, and cultural life, especially since the 17th century.

The anticipated performances will include poetry, music, dance, fashion, and theatre presentations.
This will take place on Sunday, August 6, 2023.
According to him, the ‘gyaaf’ is therapeutic and a light conversation that is inclusive. It brings people together.
“That symposium is multisensory. It is good to have things that you hear, things that you are going to see, touch, and taste, so all our senses are good to be explored on the symposium, as New York Caribbean experience this year,” Cambridge noted during his interview.

The symposium will be an open, free, friendly, and multisensory exploration of the Caribbean presence in New York from pre-Columbian times to the present. It will feature eight interconnected “gyaaf-styled” conversations. It will also include performances, a sweet potato-and-corn cookout, and a soundtrack.

The interrelated years will examine Origins and Early Colonial Relations: The transatlantic routes of New York’s Caribbean roots, the writing of the West Indians, and its impact during the 1900 and the mid-1945.

There is also going to be a focus on Religiosity and the Wisdom of folk culture, soca, chutney, dancehall, and hip hop in Brooklyn.
“Over the past 20 years, GCA has, with the participation of the public, recognised more than 200 Guyanese and other citizens whose works have advanced GCA’s mission to recognise and celebrate Guyanese heritage and creativity”, Cambridge explained.