In October, St. Vincent & the Grenadines will see what organisers say promises to be a unique and entertaining new festival of sport, culture and enterprise.
The “Everything Vincy Independence Festival” will take centre stage during the Independence season.
A proposed nine-day calendar of events (Oct. 21 – 29) will highlight all things local, promoting Vincentian culture, music, food, enterprise, and motorsport culture.
The leadership of the Vincy Motorsports Club derived the concept and plan for this festival in 2016. The proposal and idea was presented to the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture, who immediately endorsed this concept for a festival.
In 2017, Invest SVG was invited to join forces with the club along with the Department of Culture, the SVG Association of Music Professionals, and the SVG Motorcycle Club to bring this package together into one amazingly unique tourism product.
Several other groups and organisations are also active in fulfilling the festival agenda.
“The Vincy Motorsports Club believes that our celebration of independence should emphasize our culture, heritage and Vincy pride. Independence brings a lot of motorsport activity to our nation and using this base to build awareness to these cultural aspects is the main goal of this festival. The calendar of events will include a local inde-music fest concert by the SVG A.M.P. along with other local entertainment at the various functions,” the club said in a statement.
Motorsport activity will see visitors from several of neighbouring islands that will bring a number of race cars, motorbikes, and other vehicles to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“A total of five days of racing activities throughout the festival will provide tons of high speed entertainment to our people and visitors alike. The proposed calendar of events listed below will provide a template for the festival’s jam-packed line up of activities,” Vincy Motorsports Club said.
Invest SVG will be hosting a three-day business expo that will showcase and create awareness to local businesses who have export potential and/or are export ready. This expo will also provide training and assistance to local businesses to better prepare them to reach the export markets. This initiative is geared to increase the visibility of local products and is part of a larger buy local campaign that will aim to sensitize the local population about our locally produced goods.
“Part of the effort of promoting a festival of this nature is to build a bigger tourism product for our country. And part of the promotion of our lovely island nation will be to send the message to the world that we are an amazing vacation destination and we welcome persons from all corners of the globe to witness our unique island culture and vibe.”
Plans are underway to designate Oct. 23, 2017 as National Colours and Social Media Hashtag Day.
“We are hoping to make this the most colourful and patriotic day (other than Independence Day) and use it as a marketing tool to bring attention to our sovereign archipelago. ‘Everything Vincy Independence Festival’ promises to entertain, enlighten, and encourage the people of our lovely island nation to support our local artistes, our local businesses, our local talents and our local sporting scene. We look forward to your support,” the club said.