The sev­enth edi­tion of Bas­ket­ball Fi­es­ta, pow­ered by Re­pub­lic Bank through its Pow­er to Make a Dif­fer­ence Pro­gramme, jumps off at the Na­tion­al Cy­cling Velo­drome in Bal­main, Cou­va, to­day and runs un­til Sun­day.

The pre­mier youth bas­ket­ball tour­na­ment in the Caribbean will wel­come a record 12 clubs and some 42 teams across var­i­ous age cat­e­gories, with ath­lete rep­re­sen­ta­tion from Suri­name, Guyana, St Lu­cia, Grena­da, the Unit­ed States, Cana­da, and the Nether­lands.

Ac­cord­ing to Garvin War­wick, pres­i­dent of Bas­ket­ball Fi­es­ta “Where the Caribbean Comes to Ball”, the in­ter­na­tion­al turnout un­der­scores the tour­na­ment’s rapid growth and in­creas­ing re­gion­al sig­nif­i­cance.

“Bas­ket­ball Fi­es­ta con­tin­ues to be more than just a com­pe­ti­tion; it’s a plat­form for de­vel­op­ing young tal­ent and unit­ing Caribbean na­tions through sport,” said War­wick in a re­lease. “As we grow, our fo­cus must re­main on grass­roots de­vel­op­ment. On­ly through in­vest­ment in our youth can we strength­en the fu­ture of bas­ket­ball and en­sure the longevi­ty of this tour­na­ment.”

Fans are en­cour­aged to come out and sup­port the ris­ing stars of T&T as they com­pete with peers from across the re­gion and be­yond. Ex­pect three days of high-en­er­gy bas­ket­ball, ca­ma­raderie, and cul­ture—all un­der one roof.

The re­lease added: “As ex­cite­ment builds for this year’s tour­na­ment, or­gan­is­ers are al­ready set­ting sights on an even big­ger Bas­ket­ball Fi­es­ta 2026, invit­ing more na­tions and teams to be part of the move­ment.”

The ac­tion will start at 9 am dai­ly. On Fri­day, play­ers com­pet­ing in the Un­der-11, U-13 and U-15 girls’ di­vi­sions will take cen­tre stage.

The fol­low­ing day will be the bas­ket­ballers in the U-15, U-17 boys’ and U-19 girls’ di­vi­sion and on the fi­nal day, U-19 boys’ match­es, semi­fi­nals, and fi­nal.