Georgetown: The Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA) will be hosting its inaugural Rupununi Music and Arts Festival on February 14-16, 2014. This festival offers outdoor camping with entertainment from numerous artistes at Rock View Lodge, Annai.
The tourism sector is not the only one to benefit from this landmark event: the preparation and the festival itself will provide employment for approximately 50 residents of the Rupununi areas, Coordinator Bob Ramdhanie said.
“We’re coming to enjoy nature, and we want the world to see what the Rupununi has to offer,” he said.
The festival, being the first of its kind in Guyana, is an environmental adventure, an exploration of the beauty of the Rupununi, and is also an eco-oriented event. The music will be internationally flavoured, traditional and accessible, varied and interesting in many languages. It will however be dynamic, with a mixture of solo and group performances, blues, jazz, folk, Indian, African and contemporary pop.
The programme will be flexible allowing the visitors to enjoy the sheer beauty and tranquility of the grasslands whilst later in the day, enjoying the diversity of quality music from around the world.
Guyanese performers living in the UK, Marc Mathews (spoken word) and Keith Waithe (jazz & world flautist) will be returning to their homeland to share poetry and music that have been nurtured in Guyana and continue to evolve throughout the world. Home grown and home-based performers will be afforded opportunities to mix and play with Keith and Marc along with several other artistes.
The local performers include ‘Chuckie’ (Marlon Adams) and the talented children in Buxton, Fusion African drumming, and rolling up gently with Raghu’s Indian Tassa drummers. Ras Camo will be playing anything from ‘classics to calypsos’ on pan and they will be joined by Indus Voices & Dance Worqs, who will be mixing it up with classical, Indian folk music and Bollywood pop and Trevor Rogers, Desmond Atherly and Desmond Atiwell will certainly jazz things up.
In keeping with the traditions of the region, the Surama Cultural Group will present traditional Amerindian movement and music.
From the international arena singer/guitarist Namvula will blend folk and urban traditions of her Zambian homeland with London’s vibrant eclectic music scene; Filligar (USA) influenced by classic rock, blues, and American trad rock. Iryna Muha (UK/Ukraine) will offer traditional songs from Eastern European and Russia; Ramon Goose (UK) will be entraining the audience with laid back but funky blues whilst Pavel Váně (Czech Republic), an established and major figure on the Czech music scene, will deliver rock music in a simple formula. Aref Durvesh (UK), a celebrated and prolific tabla artiste promises to captivate the audience with his intricate rhythm, and Drew Gonsalves (Canada via Trinidad) with his cuatro and guitar will entertain the spectators with ‘deeply rooted in old time calypso and Caribbean folk music’.
This event will also serve as a good opportunity for quality family time. There will be food and craft stalls, an ice cream parlour, BBQ grill, and a bar around the site.
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