Castries Waterfront was transformed into an Independence village of sorts on Wednesday as the island celebrated its 44th Independence anniversary.
“Caranage Craze” which was held during the evening lured hundreds of individuals to the waterfront and proved to be a spectacular affair.
Eight calypso monarchs graced the stage that day. Ti Caroo, TC Brown, Desral, Ashanti, Herb Black, Menell, Invader and the Mighty Pep won the crowd over with some of their biggest hits; artistes like Michael Robinson, Sedale and Irvin “Ace” Loctar also performed.
The event also featured a fashion show dubbed “Fashion Hits the Streets” which ultimately turned out to be a crowd favourite.
Eye-catching designs from various local designers (Taribba Joan do Nascimento from Meme Bete, Christy Creations by Christine Samuel, Ventura by Mrykida Harris and De Kloze Line by Lisa Barton-Volney) were showcased under the evening sun and they all received stamps of approval. (Export Saint Lucia presented this segment).
The models, too, turned heads and were cheered on by members of the audience.
Nearby, a seafood festival at the Fisheries Complex was also making waves. Organized by the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the Independence committee, the seafood festival saw a large turnout.
A number of local performers entertained the audience throughout the event, livening the atmosphere.
Minister for Agriculture Alfred Prospere noted that the festival was “mainly an agricultural component which we felt was necessary to include in the Independence Day activities. Today we are seeing hundreds of persons assembled here to participate in a fish festival. As you know the Ministry has been focusing on having a number of festivals in recent times; we had the banana festival, we had the mango festival, a sea moss festival now we have the fish festival.”
He added that “we’re supposed to be having a cocoa festival and a coconut festival later on. It is really for us to boost our food security needs for Saint Lucia because food security is becoming a very serious problem worldwide and Saint Lucia as a small country must be able to feed itself. You would know and understand the impact the high food import bill is having on us as a country. I want to encourage our farmers to grow what we eat and of course Saint Lucians to eat what we grow.”
Prospere expressed his delight with the impressive turnout and also thanked fishers for their participation as they “make a big contribution to our country in terms of food security… really and truly it is about our fishers celebrating our 44th anniversary of Independence in a big way. Our fishers take risks at sea, our fishers are the ones responsible for taking the fish to the site that makes it available for this activity to happen so I want to say a big bravo to my fishers. Continue to do what you’re doing, continue to make that contribution to food security.”
No dates have been set yet for the upcoming cocoa and coconut festival, however, Prospere indicated that there are many exciting displays in store. The Ministry is hoping that the event will take place before year-end.
According to the minister, the whole thrust of the festival is “to really showcase what we produce.”
[M.A.]