BE PREPARED! THOUSANDS ARE COMING FOR OUR 50TH JUBILEE

Mar 27, 2016 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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The Guyana Jubilee Festival will take place from 19 to 22 May, 2016 at the national stadium.  It is an excellent

opportunity to show to the world the best of our cultures and our ways of life, our celebrities and everything else that is uniquely Guyanese.  It is designed to put on show products and services that were made/conceived in Guyana, by Guyanese from all walks of life.
On Tuesday 22nd March, Minister responsible for Tourism, Hon. Catherine Hughes, formally launched the Festival on the lawns of Colgrain House with a stirring message for our compatriots: BE PREPARED.  Here is an extract from her message:
“The Ministry has already confirmed that more than 60,000 overseas-based Guyanese will be travelling to Guyana to participate in the Golden Anniversary celebrations.  The online social media platforms, online news feeds, live streams, local radio, newspapers and most things electronic have been recording unprecedented hits/views by people from across the globe.  In short, Guyana is beginning to experience the high level of international recognition for which we have long been striving.
The Guyana Jubilee Festival is going to be an explosion of our country’s finest cultures – our arts & craft, fashion, cuisine and the highlight – our music.  Over four days in May, an array of some of our most talented artists this country has produced over the past 50 years will throw the best birthday bash we’ll ever see.
This Jubilee Festival will be a truly Guyanese event that puts Guyanese talent on show, ranging from performing to cooking, painting and sculpting, designing and decorating.
Despite the opinions being circulated in some quarters, Guyana does indeed have a lot to celebrate, a lot to be thankful for.  Allow me to enumerate just a few:
*The Linden/Soesdyke Highway, the first of its kind in the Caribbean.
*The first floating bridge in the Caribbean, the Demerara Harbour Bridge, that was designed by a Guyanese, Captain John Coglan, to last only 10 years but 38 years later it is still serving its purpose.
*Guyana has produced some multi-faceted people, outstanding in their various fields of endeavour including the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Sir Shridath Ramphal; our first female Chief Justice then first female Judge at the Caribbean Court of Justice, Madam Desiree Bernard; Justice Mohammed Shahabuddin, a former Justice on the World Court; Nigel Harris, previous Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, who is now settling into the University of Guyana; and the captain of the West Indies Cricket team at the height of its success, Clive Lloyd.
We are also very fortunate that so many thousands of Guyanese who left these shores, whether it was one year ago or 50 years ago, still feel an extremely strong connection to their homeland.  I know that because I experience it.
Guyanese people living in the United States, Canada, England, Germany, Africa, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad, etc. talk to me about their longing to come home, to be home, to be able to contribute to the upward movement of Guyana.  They tell me about the things they do in their adopted countries to remain psychologically connected to Guyana.  They celebrate all of Guyana’s national events, and they make sure that their children who were born there, or who left Guyana too young to remember, are aware of their Guyanese heritage.
I have to share this story with you.  There is this family resident in North Carolina.  The mother is Guyanese and her husband is Canadian. He had never heard of Guyana before he met her about 10 years ago. Now, she works at a large corporation alongside Americans, transplanted Europeans and a few West Indians.
One day last year she began to tell her colleagues about Guyana.  They were very interested and every few days she was answering questions about this place that she came from.  Around November last year she told them about our 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations.  Within one week, 24 people from her company made plans to come to Guyana with her family.  Their flights and hotels were booked in December 2015 for a party of 28 – 24 colleagues, June-Ann, her Canadian husband with her 2 American children.
I told you this story to demonstrate the high level of interest in Guyana, and to explain why every single hotel, Bed and Breakfast, and other hospitality facility in Guyana is solidly booked for April to June.
We’ve been asking home owners in Georgetown, the East Coast and East Bank, in Berbice, Linden, West Coast, Essequibo and elsewhere to make their spare rooms available to visitors.  Of course, there are a few standards that must be complied with, but the hard part is that almost everyone has family members coming too.
This particular period – the run-up to the Jubilee celebrations – is Guyana’s Primetime.  It has already started, and the key words are…Be Prepared!  Thousands of Guyanese, their friends and families from all over the world will be here.  That’s thousands of mouths to feed with Guyana’s tasty foods; thousands of feet that will walk into your business places; thousands of people to sell your products and services to; thousands of people to entertain.
This is the time for businesses to advertise, to expose your products and services, since so many eyes and ears are now tuned to Guyana.  Think of the benefits – new markets in foreign countries, expansion of your businesses to include other products, and more investments in Guyana.  This is a wonderful opportunity to literally catapult our economy into the stratosphere.”

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STRUCTURE OF THE FESTIVAL
The Festival has been carved into six main components:
* “A Night of Spiritual Upliftment” that will present a fusion of Guyanese religious devotion and entertainment – Indian, Christian, Muslim and other religions.
* The second night of Everything Guyanese will showcase our variegated cultures – Amerindian, East Indian, Chinese, African and Portuguese in dance, song, drama and poetry.  This is also the “Wear Your National Colours Night”.
* On Saturday 21st May is the night of the living legends – percussionist Keith Waithe, singers Terry Gajraj, Sammy Baksh, Sash Persaud, Aubrey Mann, Dave Martins and the Tradewinds, and others.
* The Festival will be crowned on Sunday 22nd May by Concert Nexxt Generation that puts young Guyanese talent – X2, Lisa Punch and performers from the studios of Kross Kolor Productions.
* The fifth component will be Guyana’s biggest Fashion extravaganza to be staged in the afternoon hours from 19 to 22 May on the Colgrain lawns.  Every acclaimed Guyanese fashion designer including Donna Ramsammy-James, Sonia Noel, Carol Fraser, Pat Coates, Andrea Braithwaite and Derek Moore will put on show their clothing, jewellery, shoes and accessories.
* In the daytime for the duration of the festival, Guyanese products will be on exhibition at the stadium – agro products, tourism products, food and beverages, arts and craft.  There will also be a playground for children.

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