(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Suriname became the first Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member State and host country for the Caribbean Festival of the Arts (CARIFESTA) to sign a Host Country Agreement for the Festival. This historic event took place at the Thirty-Fourth Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government on Friday 5 July 2013 in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago when the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Suriname the Honourable Winston Lackin and the Secretary General of CARICOM Ambassador Irwin LaRocque signed the Agreement.

The CARIFESTA Host Country Agreement sets out the legal and operational framework in which the new mandates for the management and staging of the Festival are to be implemented.

Heads of Government welcomed the signing in respect of CARIFESTA XI, to be held in Suriname from 16-25 August 2013 under the theme “CULTURE FOR DEVELOPMENT, Celebrating our Diversity and Promoting the Central Role of Culture in Economic, Social and Human Development”. They also viewed a CARIFESTA XI promotional video which was launched at the Meeting and can be accessed on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY9tDYuF6uA

CARIFESTA is the Region’s roving multi-disciplinary, mega-event that showcases the cultural expressions of artists in over thirty countries in the Caribbean. The Festival was established to celebrate the arts, foster a vision of Caribbean unity and to positively advance Caribbean culture regionally and internationally.

With only six weeks to go for the Festival, Heads of Government made a final call on all CARICOM Member States and Associate Members to support the event. To date, twelve of the fifteen Member States and one Associate Member have registered for the Festival.
CARIFESTA is the Region’s roving multi-disciplinary, mega-event that showcases the cultural expressions of artists in over thirty countries in the Caribbean. The Festival was established to celebrate the arts, foster a vision of Caribbean unity and to positively advance Caribbean culture regionally and internationally.

The new CARIFESTA model seeks to address several weaknesses in the management of the event, and to ensure that CARIFESTA is more dynamic, economically viable and meets the expectations of regional and international audiences.