Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richards is ex­pect­ed to take the salute at Sun­day's an­nu­al First Cap­i­tal Day cel­e­bra­tions in St Joseph. The Pres­i­dent, who is pa­tron of the Trinidad and To­ba­go First Cap­i­tal Com­mit­tee, has been per­form­ing this func­tion since the in­cep­tion of the event in 2004.

A team head­ed by the com­mit­tee's pres­i­dent Michael Valere and in­clud­ing cul­tur­al icon Mano Marcelin is hard at work putting the fin­ish­es touch­es to the day's pro­gramme, which has a strong cul­tur­al com­po­nent. Valere told the Guardian yes­ter­day: "This year's pro­gramme promis­es to be the biggest and pos­si­bly bright­est since we be­gan stag­ing the event eight years ago.

"It has spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance this year in that Trinidad and To­ba­go is cel­e­brat­ing 50 years as an in­de­pen­dent na­tion and this com­mit­tee was es­tab­lished es­pe­cial­ly to com­mem­o­rate the fact that St Joseph was the first cap­i­tal of Trinidad." Oth­er mem­bers of the com­mit­tee in­clude Ri­car­do Li­jert­wood, Ack­bar Khan, Michael Leza­ma, Laila Valere, An­dre Mc­Far­lane and Jer­ry Em­rit.

Jus­tice Min­is­ter Her­bert Vol­ney, who is al­so the MP for St Joseph, will de­liv­er an ad­dress at the func­tion which starts prompt­ly at 9.35 am, five min­utes af­ter the ar­rival of Pres­i­dent Richards. The pa­rade, which com­pris­es con­tin­gents from the Pris­ons, Cadets Corps, Fire Ser­vice and the Po­lice Ser­vice, will march around George Ear­le Park and through the streets of the dis­trict.

Dur­ing the of­fi­cial part of the cer­e­mo­ny in­side the park, the He­len Chorale Choir and harpist David Singh will per­form their var­ied reper­toire. Lat­er in the af­ter­noon (4 pm to 9 pm) some lead­ing fig­ures in the cul­tur­al are­na will en­ter­tain the large crowd ex­pect­ed.

These in­clude par­ran­deros Shar­lene and Wayne Flo­res, the San Jose Ser­e­naders, 2010 Ca­lyp­so Monarch Kurt Allen and his daugh­ter Choc'late Allen; for­mer Young Kings win­ner The Mighty Di­a­mond, In­di­an singer Nai­da Badoo, Alexan­der's Dance Troupe, reign­ing pri­ma­ry school parang cham­pi­ons St Joseph Boys' RC Parang Group, lead­ing tenor pan play­er Clyde Tele­maque and ac­tress Pene­lope Spencer.

Valere has ex­pressed his thanks to the com­mit­tee's main spon­sors this year: First Cit­i­zens, Coos­al's and the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism.