Roberts hails CARIFESTA XV as ‘transformative celebration’

Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), and Festival Director of CARIFESTA XV, Carol Roberts, described CARIFESTA XV as a “transformative celebration of Caribbean identity and innovation” as she closed the festival on Sunday night, praising the resilience of her team, volunteers, and cultural practitioners who delivered more than 300 events in ten days.

 

“When we were given this remit from Prime Minister Mottley to conceptualise and host this festival, it was with a vision of extraordinary strategic ambition,” she told the huge audience at the Richard Stoute Amphitheatre. “We were tasked not just with a ten-day event, but with a mission to be inclusive, to engage and energise Barbados and the entire region, and to leave the creative space better off than we found it.”

 

Roberts said the scope of the programme underscored the scale of the achievement: “The sheer scale of what we produced, some 300 events in ten days, was a testament to faith, fortitude, and fellowship. There were moments when we stumbled, and on those moments, we steadied ourselves, found our footing, and we moved forward.”

 

Prime Minister Mia Mottley, in her own closing remarks, struck a similar tone, acknowledging the inevitable challenges of such a massive production. “Everything didn’t go perfectly, there were teething problems, but that is the lesson of life…,” she said.

 

Both leaders also spoke to the emotional release that the festival offered to the region. Roberts described it as a chance to “exhale the pent-up fears, anxieties, and traumas that have tested our resolve”, while Mottley reinforced that message by reminding patrons that the festival allowed Caribbean people to “come together for the right reasons and to give thanks and to celebrate for the right reasons.”

 

The NCF CEO and festival director, with emotion in her voice, devoted much of her speech to saluting those who made the festival possible, calling her artistic leads, programme directors, communications officers, and volunteers the “true champions of CARIFESTA XV.”

 

The many volunteers and liaison officers assigned to visiting delegations were also recognised: “Members of our Corps of Volunteers, young Barbadians… did everything. These are our CARIFESTA champions,” she said, as volunteers as well as the artistic leads, communication officers and programme directors filed onto the stage to be applauded by the crowd.

 

Mottley, meanwhile, tied that appreciation to Barbados’ international reputation, stressing that the success of the festival was not only in its artistic breadth but in its safe delivery.

 

“I want to thank you, not just for that wonderful Barbadian hospitality, but for the fact that we have effectively had an incident-free CARIFESTA over the last ten days,” she said.

 

Roberts also thanked the protective services, reinforcing the prime minister’s message.

 

“To security and protective services, you kept us safe. And even when we stumbled, thanks to the BDF and the Barbados Police Service for just always being there and always helping us,” she said.

 

In closing, Roberts underscored the festival’s significance beyond its performances: “This really was more than a festival. It was a transformative celebration of Caribbean identity and innovation. Thank you, Barbados. Thank you, CARICOM. Thank you, world. And over to CARIFESTA XVI. CARIFESTA XV, out.”

 

tracymoore@barbadostoday.bb