Culture Directors and Interim Festival Directorate reviewing plans for CARIFESTA XV

“The insight and guidance of the IFD are crucial to ensuring that CARIFESTA remains relevant and advantageous for all stakeholders involved,” emphasised Dr Hilary Brown, Programme Director, Culture – CARICOM Secretariat

Thursday, 26 June 2025 (CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown):  The stage is being set in Barbados for a spectacular hosting of CARIFESTA XV which will feature  a unique blend of dramatic and cultural performances, fashion, music, dance and art installations.

This will be the third CARIFESTA hosted by Barbados, which previously hosted the festival in 1981 and 2017.  

With under two months to go, CARICOM Directors of culture, technical officials and a team from CARICOM Secretariat are in Barbados for the Nineteenth Meeting of the Interim Festival Directorate - IFD (24-26 June) and the Thirty-First Meeting of the Regional Cultural Committee - RCC (25-27 June 2025).

The IFD is the regional management body of CARIFESTA.

The group is getting a first-hand look at the venues, which will showcase a variety of performances and cultural activities, including drama, fashion, music, culinary arts, and spectacular art displays.

The Meeting of the IFD is being co-chaired by Dr Hilary Brown, Programme Manager, Culture at the CARICOM Secretariat, and Festival Director Carol Roberts (CEO, National  Cultural Foundation, Barbados).

In her opening remarks during the IFD meeting on Wednesday, Dr Brown underscored the importance of the body, which has been meeting since 2006, to the planning of CARIFESTA. 

“This is an important step that we take every time we have CARIFESTA…  our delegations are in the host country to interact with the organising team in order to develop a cultural performance that will excite our CARIFESTA audience,” stated Dr Brown.

“The insight and guidance of the IFD are crucial to ensuring that CARIFESTA remains relevant and advantageous for all stakeholders involved,” she emphasised.

She speaks about the importance of the IFD to CARIFESTA XV below. 

CARIFESTA XV Festival Director and Chief Executive Officer, National Cultural Foundation, Barbados, Carol Roberts, highlighted that robust discussions with the IFD are significantly beneficial to the CARIFESTA XV Organising Committee.  She explained that the committee commenced preparations in 2023 and will utilise the feedback from the IFD to enhance the plans and initiatives for CARIFESTA XV.

“This valuable insight we are utilising to ensure that Barbados as host and the Region as a whole, can deliver an unforgettable CARIFESTA – unforgettable in all the best ways,” underscored the Festival Director.

She explains how the work of the IFD impacts CARIFESTA plans below.

Additional information:

• Dr Brown further explained that the IFD was born from a proposal by artists participating in the CARIFESTA VIII (2003) advocating for a body to ensure better management and visibility of the Festival, as well as more opportunities and development for regional artists.

• The IFD is responsible for reviewing the structure of the festival and ensuring it meets the objectives of the CARIFESTA strategic plan (adopted by CARICOM Heads of Government in 2004), with a particular focus on addressing the needs of Caribbean artists.

About CARIFESTA

CARIFESTA is an international multicultural event organised on a periodic basis by countries of the Caribbean. The last festival, CARIFESTA XV, was hosted in Trinidad and Tobago in 2019, under the theme “Connect, Share Invest.”

Read more about CARIFESTA: https://www.carifesta.net/about