Plans in High Gear for St. Ann Heritage Festival and Homecoming

Plans are in high gear for this year’s staging of the St. Ann Heritage Festival and Homecoming celebrations.
The upcoming event, being planned to coincide with the 119th anniversary of the birth of National Hero, Marcus Garvey on August 17, will entail a homecoming banquet at the Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort on Saturday, August 19 and a trade fair, exposition and food festival on Saturday, August 26 at the Seville Heritage Park in St. Ann’s Bay.
Chairman of the Homecoming Committee, Herbert Murdock, told JIS News that the banquet would be held under the distinguished patronage of Their Excellencies the Most Hon. Professor Kenneth and Mrs. Rheima Hall, and the scheduled keynote speaker is human rights activist and United Nations Children Fund Goodwill Ambassador, Harry Belafonte.
Meanwhile, the trade fair and food festival will showcase the best of Jamaican and other cuisine, and offer entertainment for both children and adults. “Special presentations will be made on topics such as ‘Family Values and Heritage Awareness’ and ‘The Role of Banks in Family Planning’,” Mr. Murdock informed.
He told JIS News that “business entities across the parish have been invited to participate in our trade fair, which will promote and highlight the best that the garden parish and its neighbours have to offer to local and foreign markets”.
Proceeds from the events will support the establishment of the Marcus Mosiah Garvey Resource Centre in the soon to be renovated and expanded St. Ann Parish Library. The statue of Marcus Garvey is situated on the library’s grounds.
“The Marcus Garvey Resource Centre will ensure that our young people are provided with a special space that will become an intellectual and spiritual oasis in which we can unabashedly acknowledge who we are and meditate upon the contributions of our illustrious sons and daughters, among whom our first National Hero, The Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey is preeminent,” Mr. Murdock stated.
The St. Ann Homecoming Committee is dedicated to the celebration and promotion of the heritage of St. Ann in all its various aspects.