Dear Editor,
As a Guyanese living in Canada for over 30 years, I was extremely pleased to read of the return of the Guyana Music Festival.

Those of us who remember and participated in those earlier festivals will always cherish the anticipation and excitement that personified one of the most influential social and cultural manifestations in Georgetown. It was not just the months of rehearsing and embracing of musical expression in all its art forms, but a time of social cohesion and celebration of artistic excellence.

I applaud those responsible for reawakening the Music Festival and once again affording its participants the unique opportunity to display and preserve the immense cultural tapestry that embodies Guyanese society. Our country is blessed with a rich ethnic diversity and the integration and exchange of this cross-cultural awareness can only contribute to the unification of its people.

In the 57 years since the first British Guiana Music Festival, Guyana has seen many changes and weathered many storms but there has always been music.  However, when the festival stopped, we lost an invaluable lesson in cultural history and performance. Whatever the reason for the festival stopping, we all need to ensure that it now continues.

Now more than ever, there is a global perspective on the preservation of cultural heritage and expression and its impact on a country’s socio-economic growth. It has been more than sixty years since the adoption of Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which affirmed, for the first time, “the right of every human being to freely participate in the cultural life of the community and to enjoy the arts.” We owe this generation of Guyanese children the same opportunities that were presented to us years ago, and I urge everyone to strive to keep this Music Festival going, as its founders did so many years ago.

To those who may argue that artistic expression has no place in challenging economic times, history begs to differ, as it is during social and economic upheaval that some of the world’s greatest music evolved.

Indeed, so relevant is the importance of artistic appreciation today that one of the main themes of the upcoming World Summit of  Arts and Culture in South Africa is ‘Saving the arts… so the arts can save the World.’

Congratulations to all who participated in the recent Music Festival and to those who organized it.
Yours faithfully,
Cheryl Burrowes (Fredericks)