JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 20, 2025

A Star is Born at Sanfest 2019

by

2130 days ago
20190918

The Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of T&T (NGC) San­fest launched its an­nu­al youth-in-per­form­ing-arts event at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (South­ern Cam­pus) last Thurs­day, cel­e­brat­ing its 49th an­niver­sary and its 2019 theme — A Star is Born.

NGC Se­nior Man­ag­er (Projects) Win­ston Bai­ley said the com­pa­ny stands com­mit­ted to spon­sor the cause, de­spite a de­cline in pupil par­tic­i­pa­tion in the com­pe­ti­tion. He is hope­ful for an in­crease in par­tic­i­pa­tion in 2019.

Each year, San­fest ho­n­ours pi­o­neers who made in­deli­ble con­tri­bu­tions to the arts and this year’s ho­n­ourees in­clude stilt walk­ing train­er Ju­nior Bis­nath and, posthu­mous­ly Dr Win­ston Bai­ley (The Mighty Shad­ow) and Ken “Pro­fes­sor” Philmore.

NGC has been sup­port­ing San­fest where pupils of pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools have found an av­enue to ex­press their tal­ents in the per­form­ing, vi­su­al lit­er­ary arts.

Bai­ley said, “We at NGC con­sid­er un­re­alised po­ten­tial an un­ac­cept­able loss for our coun­ty. For this rea­son, we make it a cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty pri­or­i­ty to help match our na­tion’s young tal­ent with op­por­tu­ni­ty.”

He added that NGC first pledged sup­port to San­fest in 2003 and as­sumed ti­tle spon­sor­ship for the pro­duc­tion in 2013.

Bai­ley con­tin­ued: “While many have used the San­fest stage as a spring­board for ca­reers in the arts and oth­er fields, there are many oth­ers who missed or are miss­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties by not tak­ing full ad­van­tage of this plat­form. The num­ber of pri­ma­ry schools en­ter­ing the com­pe­ti­tion in­creased from 2017 to 2018, but the num­ber of par­tic­i­pants fell al­most by 20 per cent. Sec­ondary schools, both the num­ber of schools and stu­dents tak­ing part, fell year on year by near­ly 25 per cent.”

Bai­ley urged par­ents and teach­ers to con­tin­ue to en­cour­age pupils to ex­plore their artis­tic abil­i­ties as a po­ten­tial start to a ca­reer.

San­fest was found­ed in 1969 by James Lee Wah and has pro­duced house­hold names like Tor­rence Mo­hammed, Joyce Kir­ton Er­ic But­ler, Ron­dell Don­awa, Eu­ge­nie Joseph, Willi Chen and Avion Crooks.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored