A taste of NIFCA at Jubilee

Today, Saturday, September 17, 2016, the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) created a buzz for its upcoming Festival with a ‘Taste of NIFCA’ at Jubilee Gardens in the city.

With the preliminaries already underway, it was time to switch the conversation from Crop Over to NIFCA and today’s showcase featured a diverse cast of some of the best acts across the performing arts disciplines in a mini-concert.

The event began with a call to order from the community group the Israel Lovell Drummers; followed by popular Spoken Word artist DJ Simmons with his piece called Vibes; Adela Payne performed her rendition of Emmerton to a guitar accompaniment; Janine White, another popular name in Theatre, delivered a comical drama piece Waiting in Line; while a mix of street and modern contemporary dance brought the event to a close with the ADL Adrenalin Dancers and Justin Poleon.  Young Caricature Artist, Sammawah Downes and Landscape Painter, Pedro Taitt, brought some of the Visual Arts elements of the Festival into the space.  Emcee Jennifer Walker,

with her usual entertaining self, kept the event lighthearted and funny.

From the launch to the gala, the NIFCA promotional activities are intended to not only keep the public in the know, but also to step out into the community taking the arts into popular public spaces with a taste ‘From the NIFCA Stage’.

Under the heading, The Power of the Arts, the promotional plan will take centre stage, demonstrating how NIFCA through the arts disciplines it represents can effect change on Barbados’ cultural landscape.  It will highlight its contribution to the career development of some of the practitioners across all disciplines with ‘After NIFCA What?’; focus on rehabilitation using the arts – looking at the creative arts as a successful tool for social and cognitive transformation with ‘Saved by NIFCA’; and finally put the spotlight on those budding shining stars that give us hope for the future of the Festival with ‘From the NIFCA Files’.

This year’s Festival will also take a fifty focus in recognition of our 50th Anniversary of Independence.  For the first time in the history of the Festival, the Gala will be staged at Kensington Oval with a special independence Gala, which is expected to celebrate excellence at NIFCA over the years.

Again, in commemoration of our golden jubilee and in recognition of 30 years of Barbados’ formal cultural and diplomatic relationship with Cuba, three (3) scholarships valued at BDS $5,000 each will be offered across all

disciplines of NIFCA, toward training in the arts in Cuba via the Centro Nacional de Escuelas de Arte (CNEART), for entries which best celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Independence.

The first weekend of the NIFCA semi-finals will run from October 7-9 and the second weekend from October 14-16.  The Oct. 7th event will take place at Lester Vaughan and the Oct. 14th event will head to the north at the Alexandra School.  All other semi-final events will take place at the Combermere School Hall. The start time for all NIFCA semi-final events is 6:00 p.m.

The NIFCA Finals will remain at the Frank Collymore Hall, but with a little earlier start date this year – October 28 – 31, 2016.