- in celebration of Wordsworth McAndrew’s ideas
GUYANA is likely to be the host of the 2008 Guyana Folk Festival symposium and festival of folk games which have been ongoing in the United States of America for about eight years.

The event will be a celebration of the ideas of Wordsworth McAndrew who recently died and is organised by the Guyana Cultural Association of New York, a non-profit organisation which is committed to the promotion and preservation of Guyana’s cultural heritage.

Members of the organising team are President of the Guyana Cultural Association/Guyana Folk Malcolm Hall, Professor of the Ohio University, Vibert Cambridge, Pro-Chancellor of the University of Guyana Dr Prem Misir, and other professors of universities in Stanford, California and the University of the West Indies. The team proposes to host the event on August 15 and 16 at the Carifesta Sports Complex, Carifesta Avenue .

The event will be followed by the festival of folk games on August 17. Among the highlights of this event will be recognition of the life and work of the late folklorist.

Professor Cambridge during an interview with the Government Information News Agency (GINA) said the event is often held in three parts; the first being the award ceremony where Guyanese with outstanding contributions to the nation’s heritage are recognised, following which will be a symposium where a particular theme in Guyana’s cultural life is examined and a family fun day where Guyanese folk games and other aspects of culture are celebrated.

Professor Cambridge noted that the effort to bring the folk festival to Guyana has always been in the making and through the request of Dr. Misir, the event will be introduced in Guyana this year.

“At that point in time there was no idea that Carifesta was going to take place in Guyana and there was no feeling that Wordsworth McAndrew was going to pass on… so we decided that the focus for the folk festival symposium in 2008 would be the celebration of McAndrew’s ideas which is, ‘Guyanese folk, its role in identity and how it will help to build national cohesiveness.’ That’s the theme for this year’s folk festival which will be held in Guyana, Cambridge said.

The Professor said the festival has expanded to include an annual drama festival and a film festival which will be held this year.

Dr Cambridge is calling on persons to indicate interest by e-mailing him at cambridg@ohio.edu. He said the symposium this time around will be for Guyanese at home to contribute.

“People who have a particular interest in Guyanese culture that we are looking at, they will come to that symposium and present papers. We have had people from Wales, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, all coming to contribute to the research or interest that they have,” Dr Cambridge said.

The symposium has its origin in the Guyana Folk Festival of 1982 which was organised by the then Guyana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and will be a platform to showcase and celebrate Guyanese creativity.