Wildfire launches All-Star weekend

The eighth edition of the annual All-Star Weekend was launched yesterday by the events promotion group Wildfire Entertainment (WE) at the home of WE’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jonathan Beepat in Bel Air Springs.

This year’s All-Star Weekend, which will run for three days from November 12-14 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall is anticipated to be the biggest yet, since it will feature the world renowned AND 1 street basketball team out of the United States.

The All-Star Weekend is already known as one of Guyana’s major basketball events and organisers are promising a bigger and better event since in addition to the AND 1 team, this year’s event will be held for three days instead of two and is packed with basketball action and added attractions for those in attendance.

For the last three years the All-Star Weekend has basically been between the best players from Linden going up against the best players out of Georgetown, but this time around the WE puts a new spin on the programme by incorporating additional teams and crowd attractions.

“This year it will be Georgetown versus Linden, but in addition to this – to make this event more exciting – we have added the AND 1 Street Ball legends,” Beepat stated at yesterday’s launching.

Other teams taking part in the upcoming event are the Junior National basketball team that will be representing Guyana at this year’s Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) and the National under-21 basketball team.

The event tips off on Friday November 12 with the senior slam dunk contest, senior three-point shootout and Georgetown versus Linden Junior All Star game. Saturday’s events will include the Junior Slam Dunk Contest, Junior three-point shootout and Georgetown versus Linden Senior All Star game.

Wrapping up the All-Star Weekend will be the feature events on the programme on Sunday night. These include an AND 1 Slam Dunk Exhibition followed by a shootout contest between the champions of the senior and junior shootout contests and shooters from the AND 1 team. To conclude Sunday night’s events, there will be an exhibition game between the Junior National team and the National Under-21 team followed by the weekend’s main event between Guyana’s All-Star team and the AND 1 team.

Patrons will also be able to have items autographed at the end of the night as the AND 1 players will be signing autographs for an hour after the game.