Tobago Heritage Festival still on

CHAIRMAN of the new board of the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd (TFCL) Dr Denise Tsoiafatt Angus is expected to host a news conference next week to address plans for the 2020 Tobago Heritage Festival.

So said Chief Secretary Ancil Dennis on Wednesday as he responded to a question on the issue at the post executive council news conference at the Victor E Bruce Financial Complex, Scarborough.

The Tobago Heritage Festival, one of the island’s signature cultural events, is usually held during the two-week period preceding Emancipation Day (August 1).

In May, two months after Government instituted the lockdown on non-essential activity to prevent the spread of covid19, Dennis said the format of the festival would be revisited to ensure physical distancing. Dennis, who is also Secretary for Tourism, Culture and Transportation, assured the festival will take place.

“The Tobago Heritage Festival this year will be on,” he told reporters. “However, it will not be the usual festival that we have grown accustomed to. The chairman of the Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd Dr Denise Tsoiafatt Angus should be having a news conference some time next week and they will provide much more details on the festival and the programmes that will be included in this year’s festival.

“But, it will not be the usual kind of festival. It will be more focussed on content and it will give tremendous opportunities to all those persons operating in the creative sector.”

Tsoiafatt Angus, a former Secretary for Community Development and Culture in the former Orville London-led THA, was appointed TFCL chairman on May 1.