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From thebahamasweekly.com - New Providence
Nassau, Bahamas - After several years' absence, Cat Island's Lassie Doe Boys Rake n' Scrape Band returned to perform in the 14th International Cultural Festival (ICF) at the Botanical Gardens this past weekend. The Honourable Brent Symonette, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs , commended Subway for sponsoring the native Cat Island band's travel and accommodations. “ It is wonderful to have various sponsors like Subway,” said Minister Symonette. “They contribute to many events, provide a very good diet alternative to the other foods we have here in The Bahamas and are very good corporate citizens.” The Lassie Doe Boys Band was the sole Bahamian musical entertainment at the ICF, adding to the international flavor while evoking a Family Island type atmosphere for the massive crowd on hand. In the end, the band members expressed a desire to continue its partnership with Subway and perform at next year's ICF.
Subway General Manager Gavin Bastian said: “Despite the economic downturn, we were not going to pass on the opportunity to “host the world”. We sought to provide assistance for those of various cultures and ethnicity to showcase the best their country has to offer either through native dishes, wines and spirits or arts and craft.” Bastian congratulates ICF Chairperson and Ministry of Tourism and Aviation Director of Communications, Ms. Janet Johnson, on the successful reinstatement of the ICF. Likewise Minister Symonette applauded Johnson for, “The yeoman's work done in pulling this all together and rolling out a new and exciting Festival for all to enjoy.” The Tourism and Aviation Minister noted while at the event: “I enjoyed the Greek, French, South African, Peru, Chinese and Indonesian stands just to name a few. For those who are interested in Batik, Indonesia has a very nice stand where they show how the Batik is created and that was worth seeing.”
Indonesian Ambassador Banua Radja Manik along with his wife flew in from Cuba to attend the event. He underlined that representatives working at the Indonesian stand traveled from as far as Jakarta, Indonesia to participate in the ICF and demonstrate the art of Batik. Indonesia won the “Best In Show” Award, presented by the ICF. Batik is a technique of dyeing fabrics that involves covering parts of it with wax, dyeing the exposed part and then removing the wax with boiling water.
“
This event is very
important to us,” said Ambassador Manik. “This is an opportunity to
introduce one of our Indonesian products, Batik. (The art of) Batik
shows The Bahamas a very different side of the Indonesian culture. So
far Bahamians and people of many different nationalities are very
receptive to Batik.”
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