Kevon Felmine

Or­gan­is­ers of this year's Sug­ar and En­er­gy Fes­ti­val in Cou­va are fo­cus­ing on the de­vel­op­ment of young adults by way of ed­u­ca­tion. How­ev­er, they are ap­peal­ing to cor­po­rate cit­i­zens to come on board by ei­ther spon­sor­ing an event or mak­ing a con­tri­bu­tion.

The fes­ti­val, which runs from May 25 to 27, is es­ti­mat­ed to cost $800,000. Out­lin­ing the im­por­tance of the fes­ti­val at the launch held yes­ter­day at Plipde­co House, Point Lisas, chair­man of the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Dave Per­sad said the youths could not re­al­ly ap­pre­ci­ate the coun­try un­less they un­der­stood its his­to­ry.

He said sug­ar and en­er­gy played an im­por­tant role in the de­vel­op­ment of T&T and by teach­ing them of its im­por­tance, it would help to keep the fes­ti­val alive. Per­sad called on cor­po­rate cit­i­zens not on­ly to spon­sor, but al­so to par­tic­i­pate in the fes­ti­val.

Most of the items at this year's fes­ti­val will be held at Gilbert Park and along the streets of Cou­va. One of the high­lights this year will be the Cart Pa­rade, which de­picts the cer­e­mo­ni­al de­liv­ery of the last canes and the crown­ing of the King and Queen of the Crop.

It al­so in­cludes a Chil­dren's Day which will be set aside on­ly for chil­dren and will fea­ture a num­ber of events, in­clud­ing recita­tion, so­ca, chut­ney, dra­ma and es­say writ­ing, which will be held on May 28. The fol­low­ing day will see eight lo­cal beau­ties show­cas­ing their el­e­gance and tal­ent as they com­pete for the Sug­ar and En­er­gy Fes­ti­val Queen crown.

The queen show will be fol­lowed by the Fes­ti­val of Drums and street pa­rade, which will merge the dif­fer­ent mu­si­cal as­pects of lo­cal cul­ture. The pa­rade, ti­tled One Peo­ple, One Na­tion, One Coun­try, will fea­ture tas­sa bands, African drum­ming, steel­bands, ole mas char­ac­ters and moko jumbies.