Last year's National Popular Song Competition winner, Stephan Penicillin, performs at the launch of Jamaica Festival 2004 recently.
-Contributed photoTanya Batson-Savage, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA FESTIVAL 2004 sputtered and hiccupped its way to a very late start on Thursday evening at the Emancipation Park, in New Kingston.
Despite that, and the early evening rain, the celebrations organised by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) promise to be interesting.
From June through to August, the height of the festival season, the JCDC has organised over 40 events and competitions. This year, the festival will operate under the banner 'Good To Go'.
TOP PERFORMERS
At the launch, emceed by Fae Ellington, the audience got a taste of the talents from last year's festival celebrations through the efforts of some of the top performers in the competitions.
Kevin Downswell, the winner of last year's National Gospel Song Competition, started off the evening of performances with Praise, for which he had the members of the audience rise and wave their hands.
The 2003 winner of the National Popular Song Competition would also play his part. Stephan Penicillin, though not on his cart this time, had much of the audience singing along to Jamaican Tour Guide.
Lannaman's Preparatory, which has been successful in many areas of the Festival of the Performing Arts, delighted, using the talent of the young and energetic in their ring game rendition.
The Praise Academy, which last year earned the Rex Nettleford trophy in the National Dance Finals, represented the dance element.
The dubbing members of Nomaddz, gave the audience a taste of their past dub poetry entries while representing the speech segment. The astounding voice of Carline Waugh gave adequate representation to the music competition.
However, it was through the L'Acadco Caribbean Dance Ensemble and the Fab 5 Band that the audience got a chance to relive one of the most popular parts of the festival competitions, the Popular Song Contest.
The L'Acadco Dancers performed to a medley of some of the most popular winners, ranging from Bam Bam through to Cherry Oh Baby.
Through L'Antoinette Stines' choreography, the dancers were able to tap into the meaning and atmosphere of the songs. Fab 5 brought a close to the evening by playing a medley of past festival songs.
The National Finals of the Performing Arts will begin in late June with three days of speech finals. They will continue through to early July with three days of music finals and two days each of traditional folk forms and dance.
From July 26 to 30, some of the most entertaining and best of the winners from these finals will be showcased at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre in a series of mini-festivals, beginning with Musicfest.The gospel road shows also begin in early June, culminating at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre with the National Gospel Finals on July 25.
The once again re-vamped Popular Song Competition will take place the day before, on July 24. Both events will be staged at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre. The Miss Festival Queen coronation will also take place at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on July 17.
The JCDC has also scheduled a series of lunch hour concerts, as well as a street dance for Independence Day, August 6.
The National Talent Search will take place the following day, also at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre.
CHANGE OF VENUE
Over the last few years, the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre has been bursting at the seams with Mello-Go-Roun, which showcases the most entertaining entrants from the festival of the performing arts.
As a result, the concert will move to the National Arena this year.
This year the amateur culinary competition will be combined with the regional finals of the traditional folk forms competition, to create the 'Festival of Foods and Folk Forms'.
The Jamaica Food Festival, for professionals, makes its return to the Jamaica Grande on July 16 and 17.
'Augus' Fair, the National Fine Arts and Photography Exhibition, Summer Teen Jam, Fisherman's Regatta, Tots in Concert and a Birthday tribute for the Right Excellent Marcus Garvey are also a part of the activities.
