Festival of Arts to begin next week

The event so many school children look forward to every year begins next week. The Festival of Arts starts on Monday, May third with twenty-five primary and secondary schools taking part. The students will be competing in categories of arts and crafts, drama, music, dance and puppetry. This year’s theme is, “Promoting environmental upliftment through creative arts.” An added attraction this year will be the appearance of eleven year old Kharifa Young. Young has been residing in the United States since she was two and is recognized as an outstanding young artist at her California school. The performances of this year’s festival, which is in its seventh year, get underway with the arts and crafts competition. This will be followed by the performing arts section from May seventeenth to the twenty ninth. The Belize Arts Council would like to remind all teachers that if they think their students performances are ready for adjudication, there will be a special one-day pre-festival show on the eighth. Belize City Mayor David Fonseca will open the Festival of Arts on Monday.