Pacific Magazine > Daily News

One Year Countdown To Festival of Pacific Arts

Friday: August 03, 2007

(Secretariat of the Pacific Community)

With just a year to go, preparations are well under way for the region’s largest traditional and contemporary cultural event, the Festival of Pacific Arts.

 

The 10th Festival of Pacific Arts will be held in American Samoa from 20 July to 2 August 2008. The Executive Board of the Council of Pacific Arts, which oversees the festival, will meet at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Noumea this week to review the organisation of the festival.

 

The board, which has three representatives from Polynesia, two from Micronesia, two from Melanesia and one each from Australia and New Zealand, will assess how preparations are coming along for next year’s hosts as well as the visiting delegations.

 

The festival is a huge logistical undertaking, with over 2,500 participants expected, says Simona Lauti, executive director for the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts.

 

‘We have finalised plans for accommodation venues and the festival village,’ he says. ‘The main challenges we are facing now are securing the sources of funding for the festival and working out the logistical requirements of the participating countries.’

 

The board meeting will also be attended by various bodies involved in cultural development in the region, such as the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and the Pacific Islands Museum Association. A representative from the Caribbean Community Secretariat, CARICOM, is also expected to speak about the successful biennial Caribbean Festival of Arts, CARIFESTA.

 

SPC’s Human Development Programme manager, Linda Petersen, says that while the meeting is critical to determine the status of the organisation of the festival, it also provides the chance to bring key organisations together.

 

‘It’s a great opportunity for an update on developments in the region’s culture sector, such as in the areas of traditional knowledge and intellectual property rights, the regional cultural strategy, and the possibility of a Pacific World Heritage Fund,’ she says.

 

The Festival of Pacific Arts is held every four years. The two-week event brings together artists from throughout the Pacific Islands, Australia and New Zealand and showcases traditional and contemporary arts, including music, dance, theatre and film, literature, culinary arts, navigation and canoeing, and traditional healing arts. It plays an important role in the rediscovery and strengthening of traditional skills and knowledge and the evolution of Pacific Island identities. The festival also promotes unity by facilitating inter-regional communication.

 

Members of the current Executive Board are from American Samoa, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Australia and New Zealand.

 

The official festival website is www.festival-pacific-arts.org.