The Laborie Playing Field came to brilliant life last weekend as the island celebrated the annual La Rose Festival. Ten groups comprising a fair contingent of young and experienced participants assembled to represent communities from around the island. This is a major cultural occasion for many communities as they each took centre stage to thrill onlookers with song and colourful dance.
To boost participation from the local communities, a number of mini preparatory festivals were staged in various communities including Mon Repos and Laborie.
While the groups performed in front of the scattered bodies from around the island, some were immensely worried about the future of the festival and efforts to restore its glory days.
“It is incumbent on the local communities to develop momentum from that initiative and to broaden the membership of the local groups,” said President of the Laborie La Rose group, Lucius Ellevic. He continued, “What I see is actually the groups themselves and a few followers, but I think the propagation method is weak in terms of the number of St. Lucians who actually consume La Wóz as an activity. I think it is a good beginning, a departure from what obtained some time ago.” The Laborie President has made an appeal for St. Lucias to immerse themselves in the artform, an activity that will disappear without their participation. “One of the elements that is indeed lacking which we have to work fervently on is the issue of folk musicians. If you listen now, there is a whole lot of amplified and synthesized music accompanying the various groups because we do not have the banjo man.” The celebration of the Rose festival saw Lucius Ellevic serve as the bishop for the day, Saturday August 30th.
