Af­ter tak­ing its guests to Chi­na, In­dia and Africa in re­cent years, UWI Fete 2013 gives a nod to the Mid­dle East with Yal­la!, a pop­u­lar Ara­bic ex­cla­ma­tion, mean­ing "Hur­ry up" or "Let's go". Yal­la! is the theme of the 23rd edi­tion of the an­nu­al fundrais­ing fete that takes place on Jan­u­ary 13, on the lush grounds of the Prin­ci­pal's Of­fice of the UWI St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus.

A re­lease from the or­gan­is­ers said ex­ot­ic Ara­bic foods and spe­cial­ly dec­o­rat­ed tents and au­then­tic bel­ly danc­ing are what pa­trons can ex­pect to find at Yal­la! The pre­mi­um all-in­clu­sive event al­so guar­an­tees gourmet se­lec­tions of Cre­ole, East In­di­an, and Thai cui­sine, to­geth­er with a pre­mi­um drink ex­pe­ri­ence from the top lo­cal and glob­al brands.

Yal­la's en­ter­tain­ment will be set on two dif­fer­ent stages and will be a su­perb mix of the clas­sics and new so­ca. The per­for­mance line-up in­cludes Dil-E-Nadan, JMC 3Veni, Roy Cape All Stars, De Mighty Tri­ni, Os­car B, David Rud­der, Black Stal­in and Kes the Band. As a spe­cial trib­ute for the 23rd an­niver­sary of the fete, David Rud­der will per­form 23 of his own ca­lyp­so clas­sics.

UWI Fete was the brain­child of His Ex­cel­len­cy, Pro­fes­sor Max Richards, who served as Prin­ci­pal of the Cam­pus from 1985 to 1996. It is the cor­ner­stone fundrais­er of The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies' (UWI) De­vel­op­ment and En­dow­ment Fund. Since 1991, more than 3000 bur­saries have been award­ed to de­serv­ing stu­dents as a re­sult of pro­ceeds from UWI Fete.

Chair­man of UWI Fete, Den­nis Ramdeen said "We chal­lenge our­selves to come bet­ter every year, in every as­pect of the Fete's or­gan­i­sa­tion, as we know we op­er­ate in a very com­pet­i­tive mar­ket­place."

Ramdeen added "For the 2013 edi­tion of UWI Fete, we have brought on board two high end restau­rant brands: Joseph's and Tam­nak Thai, whose chefs will serve guests au­then­tic Ara­bic and Thai menus. We have to keep rais­ing the bar!"

The UWI Fete starts at noon on Jan­u­ary 13, on the Prin­ci­pal's Of­fice grounds at The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies St Au­gus­tine Cam­pus.

Tick­ets are $950 and are avail­able at The UWI Cam­pus or at Pep­per Ad­ver­tis­ing, New­town or from Com­mit­tee Mem­bers. As is cus­tom­ary, brunch will be served from noon to 2 pm and lunch from 2 pm to 6 pm.

For fur­ther de­tails and tick­et sources, please con­tact UWI Stu­dent Ad­vi­so­ry Ser­vices

(662-2002 ext. 82326) or Pep­per Ad­ver­tis­ing (622-6502/2762) or vis­it www.uwifet­tett.com.