THE GOVERNMENT is adding new events to the highlights of this year's Independence celebrations, despite competing events and diminishing private sector support.Officials claim they are pursuing a rebuilding programme to generate more interest and encourage greater participation in Independence activities.
"Because of the success of many of last year's events, some are being repeated this year and new ones will be brought on stream," Joan Young-Davis, national co-ordinator for special commemorative events in the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, said last week. "One of the big event is the street festival planned for New Kingston on August 7."
She said the success of the recent Jamaica Product Exchange (JAPEX) show in New Kingston encouraged the different agents involved in planning activities to put on another festival show in that area.
"The Festival will take up all of Knutsford Boulevard," Mrs. Young-Davis said. "On show will be the best of festival which include art and craft items as well as cultural items."
Mrs. Young-Davis said there will also be a festival on the Kingston Waterfront, which along with the Prime Minister's award for excellence in music, will be among the main events.
The award is presented to a Jamaican based locally or overseas who has demonstrated excellence in music.
Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's (JCDC) Executive Director Marcia Hextall said, despite competition from other events, attempts have been made to get more persons to participate in the celebrations. These plans include street dances, which returned after a long absence in 1999, when an estimated 30,000 attended last year's event in Half Way Tree.
"It is our belief, and we were mandated by the board to widen the interest and to reinforce a commitment to exposing and showcasing Jamaican culture," Ms. Hextall said.
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