Brukdong Festival Planned for Friday Night at House of Culture
‘Tis Christmastime and what better way to promote culture than through a festival featuring music and food. That is what will take place on Friday night at the House of Culture in Belize City, when the Belize Music Agency and NICH put off this year’s Brukdong Festival. The event will feature young and young at heart brukdong artists who promise to get you off your seats. In this week’s edition of Kolcha Tuesday, News Five takes a look at brukdong music, a couple of the faces behind the music now, how the Belize Music Agency intends to keep brukdong music alive, and what’s in store for you on Friday night. Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The rich, vivacious sound of brukdong will fill the air at the House of Culture on Friday night as a list of artists grace the stage to bring you the best of their brukdong albums, including some interpretations of hits from the late great Mr Peters and Lela Vernon. Harrison “Dawgie King” Bruce and Terry “Brukdong Gial” Ledlan are lined up for performances on Friday night.
Terry “Brukdong Gial” Ledlan
Terry “Brukdong Gial” Ledlan, Brukdong Artist
“ My favorite song is When Belizean Gial Come Out. (Singing) When Belizean Gial come out, dehn noh come out fi play. Or, I PG Da Mi Town, so don’t you mess around. Nobody could get we outta ya. That’s my favorite song from Lela, yes.”
Marion Ali
“Tell me a little bit about yours now, what are yours?”
Terry “Brukdong Gial” Ledlan
“Okay. So, this year we have our very own original that we will be presenting on the stage at the Brum. And I have a very new one and this one is called Ready fi Christmas. It’s when I go I say (singing) We ready, ready fi Christmas mawning. Ready, ready fi mash up the party. Oh, I said we ready, we ready fi it. Yeah.”
Harrison “Dawgie King” Bruce
Harrison “Dawgie King” Bruce, Brukdong Artist
“I want everybody come out. We’re going to come out and support this thing. This thing sweet, you know, like for instance, (Singing) they never know Christmas would be so nice, so nice. oh, so nice, never know, Christmas would be so nice. So nice, so nice. So when we start your back up on Bring the pig tail bucket. When you see me sleep with start to jump, start to jump, start to jump. Uh-huh. Harrison “Dawgie King”, the eighth Friday right here.”
Dawgie King, who is from Hattieville, shared where the idea for his hit song, Move from Front and Side and Baccka Mi originated.
Harrison Harrison “Dawgie King” Bruce
“They invite us when we don’t have mental health week. So, we find a table, we go over there and we have fun, play sports and stuff and then they have this dance day. So, this day, we go on it and you know, every time dehn call somebody wants a cigarette or something. So, one of my friend had a pack of Independent cigarettes, so everybody make a line. Sing the chorus line, say a poem, and they get a cigarette. One man left in the line, one cigarette left. Soh the bally tell he yoh have to sing a song or say a poem, because one cigarette left. [He responded] but I don’t know no song, I don’t know no poem. Soh the bally push it down back, and it walk away, and the man start,[reciting] move from front and side and back ah me. Move from front and side and back ah me.”
Meanwhile the Brukdong Gial, Terry Ledlan, says there’s space for diversity in the culture while preserving it.
Terry “Brukdong Gial” Ledlan
“I love, love colors and there’s no rule that at our cultural gial can’t use flourescent – weh yoh call it? Colors, colored hair or dress a certain kind of way. Yes, we have to continue with culture, you know, the dressing and you know, so everybody could continue, but, at the end of the day, new year, new person in town. So if I have on why yellow outfit for instance, maybe I have a yellow wig too. That’s how I feel, you know, I love my colors.”
Ledlan was a part of a music workshop that the Brukdong Bram producer, James Sanker held a while back in preparation for this and future shows. The whole idea of the annual bram going forward, Sanker said is to sell it as part of a tourism event.
James Sanker
James Sanker, Producer, Brukdong Concert
“One of the main things that we’re having this year that is different from the other years is that we have a lot of new songs. Most of the artists are doing new songs this year. And so if you want to hear some of the new Brukdong songs, come out. One of the key focuses is that we want to link this to tourism. So let me speak a little bit about that. So Belize Music Agency is partnering with the Government (N.I.C.H) via a grant from UNESCO to basically make this an annual event tied to tourism so that broke down would then be part of the tourism mix. The development of it is a true partnership with the private sector, and the government – NICH – in making this possible, and these are the kind of things that we think would make the industry grow and be more vibrant.”
Vibrancy is exactly what the people at the Institute of Creative Arts want to see result from events like this. Director of ICA, Kim Vasquez says Friday night’s bram will not disappoint.
Kim Vasquez
Kim Vasquez, Director, Institute of Creative Arts
“NICH has its mandate to create a local and international platform to showcase and promote Belizean music and brukdong is definitely one of our Belizean genres. We also know that it tends to be one of the genres that we say is endangered. So we need to ensure that, you know, we keep the legacy, we keep the music going for generations to come. So you can expect to have music non-stop on two stages. So from 7o’clock right up until ih done, there will be music going. But along with that, we also have all of the traditional Christmas niceities. We have rumpopo and all of the local wines, sorrel wine, ginger wine, your black cake, your rice and beans, your Christmas ham, your potato salad, your onion sauce, all of those things will be there in very close proximity.”
Tickets will sell for fifteen dollars at the House of Culture gate, but if you can buy your tickets in advance before five on Thursday evening at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts ticket booth, the price is ten dollars. Marion Ali for News Five.
