Large crowd attends Nine Mornings Festival launch

Onlookers lined the streets of Kingstown on Sunday evening, as throngs of persons from various communities marched through the streets, marking the official launch of the 2014 Nine Mornings Festival.

The march ended at Heritage Square, where persons were greeted by a number of officials {{more}}and serenaded and entertained by various community groups and dance troupes.

In brief remarks, minister of Tourism, Sports and Culture Cecil McKie declared that this year’s Nine Mornings festivities were “going to be the bomb,” given the large turnout of persons at the launch.

He also noted how much the festival has evolved over the past years.

“Indeed, we have moved this festival from a dying festival some 16 years ago to one of the major festivals in St Vincent and the Grenadines. No longer is Nine Mornings just about going out and taking early morning walks or an early morning sea bath or going to church or coming in the street and looking at cycles lighting up,” he said.

This festival has moved to coming out in your thousands to the different communities throughout St Vincent and the Grenadines; the 40 or so communities that light up each year and most of them have programmes. This festival has moved to now promoting the development of our cultural artistes …the dancers, persons who sing, persons who do drama, who do choral speaking, art forms that are put on throughout the various programmes in St Vincent and the Grenadines.”

The Culture Minister disclosed that Sunday’s launch marked the start of a full month of activities and highlighted the number of persons that will travel to the country to be a part of the festivities.

While making reference to the Argyle international airport, which is expected to be fully operational by mid-2015, McKie expressed hope that the number of persons attending Nine Mornings will increase in coming years.

“We now have the attention of the regional and international media. It means that we are moving forward and as we welcome more and more visitors to our shores each year, with 2015 being the year when it will be cheaper, easier and more attractive to come to St Vincent and the Grenadines, we expect that Nine Mornings will continue to be the critically important cultural activity for us here in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” he said.

Deputy chair of the SVG Nine Mornings Committee Lennox Bowman stressed that Nine Mornings is a national event and took the opportunity to thank all volunteers and sponsors who work each year to make the festivities a success.

“I want from the outset this evening to say a big thank you to all those volunteers who worked tirelessly hard in every nook and cranny, in every village of St Vincent to produce what we have. I also want to thank our sponsors who continue to support us. We need even more of that. We need your support and we need people’s support, which I know we don’t have to ask for,” he said.

Communications officer of VINLEC Tamara Job-Sprott and Product Development officer at National Lotteries Authority Anthony Dennie also delivered brief remarks on behalf of their companies, who also sponsor the Nine Mornings Festival.(BK)