SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Fifty-five years ago, then-Eng­lish Lan­guage and Eng­lish Lit­er­a­ture teacher at Na­pari­ma Boys’ Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do, James Lee Wah, saw more than aca­d­e­m­ic po­ten­tial in his stu­dents—many of whom were sim­ply wait­ing for the next ex­am.

Recog­nis­ing a reser­voir of cre­ative tal­ent wait­ing to be tapped, the then-vice prin­ci­pal, who served from 1966 un­til his re­tire­ment in the mid-1970s, act­ed on his vi­sion.

The re­sult was the birth of T&T’s pre­mier arts fes­ti­val for pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary school stu­dents—of­fi­cial­ly reg­is­tered as San­fest (San Fer­nan­do Fes­ti­val).

The fes­ti­val, en­riched by the San Fer­nan­do Arts Coun­cil (SFAC), has long been ded­i­cat­ed to nur­tur­ing and de­vel­op­ing young tal­ent, en­cour­ag­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in the arts, and pro­vid­ing ex­pe­ri­ences that con­tribute to stu­dents’ holis­tic de­vel­op­ment.

Fo­cused on dis­cov­er­ing and shap­ing the best young tal­ent, San­fest has been a launch pad for sev­er­al of the na­tion’s mu­sic stars, in­clud­ing Machel Mon­tano, Kees Di­ef­fen­thaller, and Nailah Black­man, who once graced its stage as stu­dents.

Vice-chair­man of the SFAC, Deron Attzs, cred­it­ed the fes­ti­val’s longevi­ty to the ded­i­ca­tion of stake­hold­ers, fes­ti­val di­rec­tors, teach­ers, and par­ents.

“As San­fest cel­e­brates its 55th year, the cur­rent pro­duc­ers have tak­en mean­ing­ful strides to­wards re­struc­tur­ing its mod­ules to en­sure its con­tin­ued rel­e­vance in these mod­ern times. This new ap­proach puts a greater fo­cus on the youth and the lead­ing role they de­sire to play in to­day’s world. We are ex­cit­ed for this bold shift and the po­ten­tial it holds for our youth,” Attzs said.

This year’s theme, Jour­ney to Lega­cy, re­flects the fes­ti­val’s mis­sion to con­nect its rich his­to­ry with the as­pi­ra­tions of to­day’s youth. Reg­is­tra­tion opened in June and con­tin­ues un­til Sep­tem­ber 15.

The com­pe­ti­tion spans mul­ti­ple cat­e­gories. Vi­su­al Arts reg­is­tra­tion has al­ready closed, as has the reg­is­tra­tion for Mr and Miss San­fest (which end­ed Ju­ly 31).

Still in progress are the Lit­er­ary Arts and Per­form­ing Arts cat­e­gories—in­clud­ing dra­ma, mu­sic, and dance.

The dead­line for vir­tu­al sub­mis­sions of Choirs and Pan En­sem­bles is Au­gust 30, with pan judg­ing to be con­duct­ed at schools or pa­n­yards. Reg­is­tra­tion for Dance, Dra­ma, Cre­ative Writ­ing, and oth­er Mu­sic cat­e­gories clos­es on Sep­tem­ber 15.

The reign­ing 2023–2024 cham­pi­ons are ten-year-old Javier Thor­pe, crowned Mr Young Star for his steel­pan ren­di­tion of CeCe Winans’ Good­ness of God, and 11-year-old Xy­nai Ramesh­war, Miss Young Star, for her dance trib­ute to El­la An­dall.

Eliz­a­beth Rame­sar and Mar­cus Mc­Don­ald, both 16 at the time, were crowned Miss and Mr San­fest.

Rame­sar, of St Joseph’s Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do, won for her com­bined skit and song on con­fi­dence, al­so tak­ing the Best Tal­ent Award, while Mc­Don­ald, of Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, im­pressed the judges with his orig­i­nal gospel com­po­si­tion. Hav­ing com­plet­ed his CSEC ex­ams, Mc­Don­ald is now pur­su­ing a ca­reer in the cre­ative in­dus­try.

For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact the SAN­FEST of­fice at (868) 294-0835, send a What­sApp mes­sage or call (868) 713-4100, or email san­festju­nio­rarts­fes­ti­val@gmail.com.