Tobago's Blue Food Festival marks silver jubilee on Sunday

THE TOBAGO Blue Food festival commemorates its silver jubilee on Sunday at the Bloody Bay Recreation Ground.

The villages of L’Anse Fourmi, Parlatuvier and Bloody Bay started the event in 1998 to celebrate the versatility of the dasheen.

Since then, the festival has become a staple on Tobago’s cultural calendar, attracting hundreds of people annually to Bloody Bay.

Tobago Festivals Commission CEO John Arnold said the villages that pioneered the event and Tobagonians, by extension, should be proud.

“For an event to celebrate 25 years speaks volumes, because this was something that started off as a rural, community event and established itself as a signature, flagship, northside festival tourism event. Nobody can dispute that,” he told Newsday.

“It has also built itself in terms of being unique by looking at the dasheen. But it has also extended itself in terms of several other areas.”

Arnold said the festival, which is expected to begin at 10 am, will have its usual offerings – a petting zoo, children’s corner, arts and crafts section, food court and live entertainment.

He said THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Tashia Burris are expected to deliver brief remarks.

In terms of entertainment, Arnold said patrons can expect a “judicious mix” of Trinidad and Tobago performers.

The line-up includes veteran soca artiste SuperBlue (Austin Lyons); Preedy (Akeem Chance); Nailah Blackman; Keishon Jack; Joanne Archer, Gerard Bafour, L’Anse Fourmi Methodist Primary School and reigning Tobago October carnival junior monarch D’Ashe Saul.

Arnold said prizes will be awarded for the best dasheen cake, pie, wine and pholourie, among other categories. Patrons can also look forward to the return of the crayfish competition. The festival will also honour several of its stalwarts.

Arnold said the THA has started to construct a blue food village at the festival site in Bloody Bay.

“So that people will be coming to a partially-built blue food village. All we have now are basically the slabs, and we will put the tents over that.”

Ideally, Arnold said, the plan is to build over 30 booths, a performance area, a parking structure and washroom facilities.

“All that is going to be built, with proper landscaping, as a permanent blue food village, and the hope is that the communities could take advantage of seeing beyond that blue food festival toward other sustainable products.”