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From:TheBahamasWeekly.com Ministry of Tourism Updates
Freeport, Grand Bahama Island – It’s JUNKANOO SUMMER FESTIVAL time again, and this year promises to be bigger than ever! Junkanoo Summer Festival is an annual Ministry of Tourism and Aviation signature event, designed to showcase Bahamian culture to the visitors to our Islands as well as local residents. This year, the street and heritage festival will take place over a three week period on Taino Beach, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Junkanoo Summer Festival will now kick-off on Thursday, July 14th, with a feature performance by the man behind the hit song, “Jungalist”, Geno D!
The festival will feature performances by the Royal Bahamas Police Force Marching
Band & Pop Band, Stileet and a host of local entertainments. Week
II’s headliners will include Gino D and Week III’s finale will include
Veronica Bishop and KB!
The Street & Heritage Festival
will colourfully display the traditional cultural elements of cuisine,
arts & crafts, nature trail tours, music, including two JUNKANOO
rush outs. This year, for the first time Jr. Junkanoo will lead off
the parades, with the Swingers bringing the evening to a close with
a finale rush out. The Junkakids Korner will provide kids an opportunity to interact with each other while learning how to paste costumes and play heritage games.
Visitors and Bahamians alike
can engage in
“Bush Tea” Tasting
after a tour of the nature trail situated at Taino Beach, lined with
local shrubs and trees, labeled with their beverage and medicinal purposes.
The Ministry of Tourism, Grand
Bahama Island is especially excited about this year’s festival as
we embark on our fifth anniversary at the Taino Beach Park venue. The
exciting news is that the Ministry of Tourism is well on its way to
converting Government initiated projects to private sector entrepreneurial
opportunities. For the third year we have embraced local partnerships
which will allow us to better utilize our local talent and private sector
relations. The team of Maecal Electronics and A Social Afair will once
again co-manage this year’s production of Junkanoo Summer Festival.
In this same spirit, the Ministry
of Tourism was presented with a jingle called
“Junkanoo Spirit”
written and produced by one of our last year’s apprentices, Angelo
Mortimer. His passion and commitment to Tourism lead us to use his jingle
for the next two years, as the back ground music for our Junkanoo Summer
Festival commercials.
We see this team of young Grand
Bahamian entrepreneurs as the catalyst to moving events such as these
from public sector management to private sector ownership.
The Government understands
the economic impact that cultural activities such as Junkanoo Summer
Festival have on the local communities, and the move to include more
Bahamians in the ownership process, will have an even greater and sustaining
impact by distributing the benefits throughout the Island of Grand Bahama.
The Ministry of Tourism & Aviation is most excited about the new sponsors that we have been able to attract to this annual event. Burns House is the major sponsor of this year’s Junkanoo Summer Festival and we are proud to have them on board. The Burns House Group is the proud producer and distributor of Kalik Beer which is widely regarded as “beer of The Bahamas.” It is the number one selling Bahamian beer in The Bahamas and the only Bahamian beer to be exported. Kalik; name derived from the “Kalik, Kalik, Kalikin” sound of the cowbell instrument used in Junkanoo, has supported the development of Junkanoo and Bahamian cultural festivals for more than 20 years.
Mr. Seymour, Commercial Manager
of Burns House-Grand Bahama says,
“
Whenever possible, we support all forms
of Bahamian culture so we are indeed very happy to sponsor this year’s
Junkanoo Summer Festival. The Ministry of Tourism has put together a
fantastic program; visitors and Grand Bahamians alike will see a wonderful
display of Bahamian culture. We are looking forward to an awesome festival”. The Ministry of Tourism also sincerely appreciates the continued partnership and sponsorship of Freeport City Council, The Grand Bahama Power Company, The Grand Bahama Island Tourism Board, Freeport Container Port, Borco, The Royal Bahamas Police Force, Red Cross, Crown Ice who produces the Junkanoo Summer Festival logo water, The entertainers, The vendors and artisans and the community at large, especially those who live in the Smith’s Point area, because without everyone’s support this grand event would not be possible.
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