Festival of Arts Showcases Young Stars

The preschool district festival of arts commenced on Tuesday across the country and since then, hundreds of young talented students have graced the stage of the Bliss Center for the Performing Arts for the Belize District. From dance, to drama and song…the little ones were impressive, receiving gold, silver and bronze certificates. This year, the top performers from across the country will converge at the Bliss for a first of its kind national showcase. News Five spoke today with National Coordinator Leroy Green about the presentations on Saturday for the rural preschoolers.

Leroy Green

Leroy Green, National Coordinator, Festival of Arts

“I must say that the teachers are living up to it this year in the festival that I am seeing; in terms of the quality, the costumes, the confidence of the children coming on stage. The Belizean preschool teachers who are working behind the scenes and the parents should be commended because they are there supporting their children one hundred percent. So I think the success of what we are seeing is a combination of factors amalgamating together. Saturday morning, there are performances from the rural schools and I think for Saturday morning alone we have twenty-three entries from ten rural schools. And Tuesday night we are having the rest of the city schools. So I think by the end, there would have been about thirty Belize District preschool in this year’s festival, which is an increase from last year by sixteen. But because of the increase, this year we’ve taken it to a new level where the preschool festival of artist is being adjudicated now. So the children will walk away with gold, silver and bronze certificates just like the primary schools and the high schools. Also similar to the high school, they will have their own national showcase here at the Bliss where six of the most outstanding items from each preschool festival in the district will come here and be showcased for the nation to see. This is a new element and also trophies will be given to most outstanding drama, most outstanding art, most outstanding dance, most outstanding music; the most all around school and individual teachers will be getting awards, like the best dance teacher and those kinds of things. So the preschool festival of arts is reaching another level and we think that they deserve it.”