September celebrations activities released
It’s almost September, and the Celebrations Committee is promising a wide variety of activities on their program that will appeal to everyone wanting to experience culture in the festivities. There are forty-eight events on the programme organized by the private sector and the September Celebrations Committee. This year the activities will be more culturally relevant and family oriented. The events will include a story telling contest, organized by the national library service, fireworks, fire engine parade and the children school rally. To promote our ethnic diversity, the committee is organizing a cultural village showcase and musical concerts designed to highlight local music. Today News Five spoke with two of the coordinators of the celebrations.
Glenn Tillett, September Celebrations Committee
“There are three events specifically designed for our local national musicians. The second annual Belize Music Festival, which is all Belizean music, highlights our musicians’ efforts. There is the Belizean sound contest, which will include only Belizean music and original musical expression. And then on the twenty-first, we hire only Belizean musicians and then they can showcase to a large group of people particularly people who ordinarily don’t get to see them the rest of the year, their musical genius and their musical expressions.”
Ann Wade, Culture Village Coordinator
“Well, cultural day will be a two-day event on the nineteenth and the twentieth of September. What culture village actually wants to accomplish, is to bring all of the elements that make up the Belizean mix in one venue over two days, to show authentic cultural representations of entertainment, music, food and other cultural things like crafts. So far we have gotten the commitment to participate from the Chinese community, the Nigerian community, we also have the Creole community. The traditional ethnic groups that we focus on when we talk about Belizean culture, the Creole, the Garifuna and we are looking for Mestizo as well and we have the participation too of the Maya community, including the Ketchi and the Mopan Maya. So we hope to have two days of the mix that show what Belize is presently.”
The festivities kick off on Friday September first, with the Fifty-fourth Miss Queen of the Bay pageant, to be held at the Belize City Centre.
