Caribbean Beat — January/February 2017 (#143)

datebook
If you’re in . . .
Bequia
Guadeloupe
Guyana
Mount Gay Music Fest
Venues around Bequia
19 to 22 January
bequiatourism.com/bequiamusicfest
There’s a special calmness about
Bequia, one of the Grenadines south
of St Vincent. The island air softly
whistles a magical tune that can make
your insides flutter. It’s hypnotic —
drawing people every year to this
exceedingly anticipated music festival,
leaving almost no rooms available in
hotels and mooring many vessels in
Admiralty Bay.
For over fourteen years, the Bequia
courtesy papa machete
FEMI: Festival Régional et
International du Cinéma de
Guadeloupe
Venues around Guadeloupe
27 January to 4 February
lefemi.com
Still from Papa Machete, screened at FEMI 2016
Mashramani
Venues around Guyana
23 February
As the only English-speaking country
in South America, Guyana is no
stranger to being unique. While
some countries have military parades,
air shows, or formal receptions for
Republic Day, Guyana has a different
spin on its festivities, down to the
name: they call it Mashramani, or
simply Mash. It’s a derivative of an
Arawak word describing a type of
festival held by indigenous people to
celebrate a special event.
Pawel Kazmierczak / shutterstock.com
Tourism Association has welcomed
artistes from all over the world to
perform their eclectic hits at the
Mount Gay Music Fest. Past headliners
include Dana Gillespie and the
London Blues Band, the Arturo Tappin
Band, the Elite Steel Orchestra, Edwin
Yearwood, and Bequia blues man,
guitarist, and crowd superstar Toby
Armstrong.
The festival runs for four nights,
but for just one of those — Friday —
the famous Mustique Blues Festival
hops over to Bequia to take over the
programme and thrill the audience
with the best of the blues. The
proceeds from this event go to the
Basil Charles Educational Foundation.
On other festival days, the open-air
live performances create an intimate
and relaxed ambiance, making loyal
music festival fans return each year.
The first four letters in the festival’s
name give you an inkling of its roots.
Originally dedicated to women of film
and organised by women, FEMI was
founded in 1992. It has since evolved
and widened its scope, embracing
Caribbean and international cinema
in all its diversity.
Guadeloupe’s annual film
celebration offers programmes such
as FEMI Youth, which allows students
from kindergarten to university
to experience the atmosphere of
an international festival and meet
industry professionals. No one is
excluded: a selection of films is also
taken into prisons, under the initiative
of FEMI in the Walls.
The 2017 programme includes
over sixty local films, regional and
international features, shorts, and
documentaries, and often previously
unscreened works. If you’d like to
delve deeper into the world of the
cinema, workshops and masterclasses
are also available. Running on a low
budget? Enjoy free screenings during
all sessions at the Bibliothèque du
Lamentin at FEMI in the City. Past
guests of honour have included
celebrated filmmaker Euzhan Palcy
and actors Angela Bassett and Danny
Glover.
Fetes, concerts, calypso
competitions, steelpan, soca, a
chutney monarch competition, and
other cultural presentations are all on
the Mash calendar. Sounds familiar,
doesn’t it? And following Guyana’s
fiftieth anniversary of Independence
last year, a new event was announced
for the Mash lineup: a calypso caravan
travelling through communities and
drawing neighbours together.
The highlight, though, is the
costume parade in Georgetown. Spicy
costumes join vibrant floats sponsored
by corporate Guyana and government
agencies, bearing nation-building
mottos. This year’s Mashramini theme
includes “greater unity” — wining
down to soca, steelpan, and chutney
music seems like a great way to start.
Event previews by Shelly-Ann Inniss
amanda richards courtesy Guyana tourism authority
26 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM