CARIFESTA Returns With Vibrant Showcase of Caribbean Culture

The Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA XV), which began on Friday (August 22) in Barbados, has returned with a vibrant showcase of cultures, cuisines, fashion, performances, and visual arts from across the region, celebrating the theme, ‘Caribbean Roots; Global Excellence’.

Now in its 15th staging, the event, returning for the first time since 2019 after a COVID-19-related hiatus, runs until August 31.

The festival has served as a unifying force and melting pot of creativity and cultural excellence from across the region since its introduction in 1972 by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government.

Global Communications Director for CARIFESTA XV, Josanne Leonard, tells JIS News that this year marks the festival’s big ‘comeback’.

“The last CARIFESTA was in 2019 in Trinidad and Tobago, and then we had COVID-19. I think CARIFESTA XV is really shaping up to be quite ambitious and quite spectacular. We all understand in the region, and if we don’t, we should, that CARIFESTA is our biggest celebration of ourselves. It’s our art and culture, and it happens biennially,” she says.

“There are over 100 events spread across all the disciplines – music, dance, theatre, visual arts, performing arts, a youth village, big conversations, symposia – and a lot of community events,” Ms. Leonard adds.

“For the spectacular comeback of CARIFESTA, the Government of Barbados unveiled a purpose-built facility spanning 44,000 square feet, designed to serve as the central hub for the festival’s activities.

The country’s National Performing Arts Centre will host a number of theatrical productions throughout the festival, including those from Jamaica, which is represented by a 100-member delegation expected to deliver impressive showings.

One group forming part of the delegation is L’Acadco: A United Caribbean Dance Force, founded and led by Dr. L’Antoinette Stines, who highlights the ongoing preparations for the festival.

“[It has been] a lot of work to get ready for CARIFESTA, because we are doing a full show of L’Acadco. We are on stage by ourselves doing a full show of seven pieces, then we are on stage for a performance where they have all the dance companies that are going to be down there dancing together. There are quite a few things that we are involved in,” she tells JIS News.

Dr. Stines says L’Acadco’s showing at CARIFESTA XV will centre on the experience of enslaved Africans who were thrown overboard during their forced voyage through the Middle Passage to the Caribbean. The company will present a deeply evocative piece titled ‘Saltwater Tongues – We Came by Sea’.

“CARIFESTA is extremely important to me and to the members of L’Acadco because that is where the Caribbean Community comes together, exchanges a lot of knowledge, shares a lot of information and that is where you get to see each other’s artistry and hear each other’s opinion about the region. It becomes a moment of Caribbean oneness and, for me, it’s important for people to celebrate all our successes as Caribbean people, and [these are] celebrated through the arts,” she adds.

Other dance groups representing Jamaica at the festival include the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) and the Tivoli Dance Troupe.

Jamaican culture and heritage will also be on full display at CARIFESTA XV, with traditional folk offerings from the Manchioneal Cultural Group out of Portland.

Founder and Artistic Director, Richard Derby, tells JIS News that participating in this year’s festival holds special significance for the Group, which is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary.

“It’s really special for us to be going out to showcase what we have been doing. We are specialists in the traditional folk forms and we will be doing four performances: ‘Bruckins Party’, which is our traditional Emancipation dance; we have ‘Kumina’, ‘Dinki Mini’ and we will be doing a combination of ‘Tambu’ and ‘Gerreh’. All of those are performed to the sound of drums and singing,” he outlines.

Mr. Derby says the group has been actively preparing for their performance at the festival, with new costumes being designed.

“Different performances require different costumes. For example, ‘Bruckins’ is traditionally red and blue outfits for the Kings and Queens. So, we have been preparing because we want Jamaica to look good when we get there; so we have been creating new costumes,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Ms. Leonard highlights the significance of CARIFESTA, noting that its original objective was to reinforce the importance of celebrating Caribbean identities.

“We’re very young as a region, in terms of unification, but CARIFESTA is more than a symbol. It is a living laboratory of how we come together every two years and celebrate our expression, the things that come out of our hearts and our minds, our creative classes or cultural workers or cultural producers and all of the people who make those things possible,” she says.

Ms. Leonard further emphasises that, “it’s important that we should celebrate ourselves”.

“We forget that our resilience comes from us having survived the slave trade and indentureship, moving from colonialism and colonial states into independent states. All of that is a process and a journey, and the way in which we best express it is through our arts and culture,” she adds.