Caribbean Folk Festival for New York City
THE COLOURFUL, dynamic and explosive cultures of several islands of the Caribbean will be on display in Queens, New York, on June 7, with the staging of the Bankra Caribbean Folk Festival at the Jamaica Performing Arts Center on Jamaica Avenue.
This daytime festival is the creation of Jamaican cultural impresario in New York, Andrew Clarke, and the programme includes live performances by Braata Folk Singers from Jamaica, Something Positive Inc, Boodoosingh Tassa Group and Adlib Steel Orchestra from Trinidad and Tobago, La Troupe Zetwal from Haiti, Quake USA from Grenada and Impressions Dance Theatre from Guyana.
The Bankra festival has been designed for the entire family, so there will also be a village for children with JJ The Clown, Honeybee Face, and body art and face-painting for kids. Additionally, attendees can also enjoy folk games and dances, drumming sessions, basket weaving displays and a magician. No such Caribbean event is complete without the mouthwatering flavours of the region, so a food pavilion will provide a dazzling array of signature dishes that represent the gastronomic diversity of the islands.
“June is Caribbean Month in New York, and we wanted to go all out this year to retain and celebrate many of the cultural elements that make the Caribbean region so vibrant,” Andrew Clarke said. “It is with this spirit in mind that we created the Bankra Caribbean Folk Festival,” he added.
The Bankra Caribbean Folk Festival forms part of the annual celebration of Caribbean Tourism Organization Week in New York that brings together a group of 32 regional destinations for seven days of jampacked activities to market and promote the region.