KALI­FA SARAH CLYNE

The open­ing of the To­ba­go Her­itage Fes­ti­val takes place at 8 pm to­day at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um, To­ba­go, dur­ing which mas de­sign­er Bri­an Mac­Far­lane will de­liv­er a spe­cial pre­sen­ta­tion. The event is in its 25th year. De­scribed by the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) as a "cel­e­bra­tion," this year's fes­ti­val is themed "Yours, Mine and Ours: To Pre­serve and Pro­tect." It has been pre­lud­ed by a num­ber of events, among them the Fish­er­man's Fete last week­end in Spey­side, the Bele fest, Folk and African drum­ming and the Youth Her­itage Fes­ti­val.

A re­lease from the THA said this year presents a mul­ti-lay­ered event which will cel­e­brate all things To­bag­on­ian. Af­ter tonight's open­ing, there will be a three-day Folk Fi­es­ta fea­tur­ing a dance fes­ti­val to­mor­row, a "Sing Out" on Sun­day and a trib­ute to the el­ders and "Tam­brin fuh so" event on Mon­day. Tam­brin is an in­stru­ment like the tam­bourine and is in­dige­nous to To­ba­go. To­ba­go folk­lore sug­gests the in­stru­ments were cre­at­ed by slaves af­ter their drums were tak­en away by plan­ta­tion own­ers. The her­itage fes­ti­val will fo­cus on To­ba­go cul­ture and the is­land's unique her­itage, and will fea­ture its unique events and ac­tiv­i­ties such as an ole-time To­ba­go wed­ding, goat races, ole-time To­ba­go Car­ni­val and sev­er­al ex­hi­bi­tions and cul­tur­al show­cas­es. The fes­ti­val clos­es on Au­gust 1.