The Carifesta grand market at the Sophia exhibition site which promised to deliver a dazzling array of Caribbean culture opened yesterday and there was nothing grand about it, as some visiting delegations and locals were still in the process of setting up booths.

The official opening for the grand market which was scheduled for 1 pm was cancelled without any word being communicated to anyone, including the media. Officials at the site when pressed for answers said they had no idea what was going on.

A Venezuelan drama workshop that was scheduled for the Umana Yana yesterday from 10 am to 11.30 am was also cancelled and there was no advance warning.
Up until 5 pm when Stabroek News left the Sophia site a sparse crowd had gathered, browsing around the booths that were occupied. Some persons commented that they had rushed to get tickets for a day when nothing was happening.

Nancy stories: Storyteller Auntie V of the Cayman Islands works her magic at the Sophia exhibition site yesterday sharing an Anancy story with the public. (Jules Gibson photo)

The Carifesta Secretariat later issued a press release advising the public that tickets to the grand market were no longer colour coded. The policy previously had been that specific colours allowed entry into the exhibition site on specific days.

According to the secretariat persons who were in possession of tickets with colour bars could now gain entry on any of the days for which the grand market would be open; the market runs from August 23-30.

The secretariat also stated that persons who were in possession of tickets for performances at St Roses’ High should present them to the Concert Hall, City Hall which was the alternative venue for all performances booked for St Rose’s.

Lennox Canterbury, Site Coordinator at Sophia told Stabroek News yesterday that some booths were yet to be occupied owing to the late arrival of some countries but he noted that the site was fully ready. He said that they were around 95 per cent complete, adding that everything would be ready by today.

Canterbury could not answer any questions about the official opening that was cancelled and would only say that he was in charge of the site venues.
But among the few countries that did set up at Sophia, there was evidence of some Carifesta energy  flowing. Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands had their booths ready and the visiting delegations interacted with the public as a few persons filed into the eastern auditorium where they were located.
Auntie V, a passionate storyteller from the Cayman Islands, was a noticeable character upon entering the auditorium. Her stories about Anancy the spider, were an instant hit and within a short time children and adults were under her spell, and every time she said she had finished and this was the last one, they begged her to continue.

It turns out that Auntie V is Virginia Foster, a retired librarian living in the Cayman Islands but who is originally from Belize. In an interview she recounted that Anancy stories were hardly known by children in the Cayman Islands, and after realizing this she took it about herself to spread the tales.

“It is not just the children back home, because I came here today and asked the young children and only one boy knew who Anancy was. Our children are not reading our own classic tales,” Foster said.

Foster said she was delighted to join the delegation from the island to share her stories. She referred to herself as an Anancy specialist, since those are the stories she tells all the time, though she sometimes shared a few from Belize. For over seven years she has been a prominent feature back home and has appeared in the popular, ‘Gimistory’ cultural forum in the Cayman Islands.

Suriname’s booths also attracted much attention with a stunning display of the country’s rich craft and traditional clothing and head wraps. The popular pangi (wrap clothing) were among the pieces that persons enquired about, and one of Suriname’s best, Madga Adjosie, explained how they are an important item for many persons back home. She said they wore it with pride and that it was a phenomenon on their emancipation celebrations.

But the biggest hit of the Suriname booths were the head wraps of Georgine Breeveld who has been in the business for over 30 years. Her wraps each had a meaning and they told a story, in particular the one that she called, ‘Meet me at the corner.’

She said women back home wore this head wrap only when they wanted to pass the home of the man they were interested in. ‘Meet me at the corner’ automatically told the man that the woman wanted to see him at the corner and he often responded to it by showing up. Depending on which corner the woman had in mind – the right or left corner – she would tie a bow on the wrap pointing in that direction.

“Wraps are a huge part of our culture,” Breeveld told Stabroek News smiling, and as persons entered the booth she explained what the wraps meant getting loud crackles when she got to ‘Meet me at the corner.’ She also had wraps called, ‘Peacock’ and ‘Wait for me,’ among others.

Over at the British Virgin Islands booth interest was fast growing in the little dolls they had on display and at the Trinidad booth persons were also beginning to file in. Trinidad’s booth was impressive and kept drawing looks of amazement. Many of the local booths had also been set up, but persons commented that it felt like another GuyExpo, so they skipped those.