The Department of Social Cohesion, Culture, Youth and Sport last Friday evening culminated the Mashramani activities 2019 with the annual awards ceremony which gave recognition to the talents shared by outstanding participants.In delivering her report for this year’s activities, Director of Culture Tameka Botswain noted that despite some challenges, Mash 2019 exceeded expectations.
“Mash 2019 exceeded expectations. The Department of Culture with the determination to make Mashramani 2019 larger and louder, embarked on an intense campaign in the latter half of 2018 to redefine the way Guyanese see the festival…Mashramani is so much more than the costume and float parade,” she said.
According to her, there was an increased number of participants that outgrew traditional locations. Next year will bring the 50th anniversary of Republic Day and signature activities will be orchestrated to celebrate this milestone.
Meanwhile, Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton said there were commitments to make this celebration better than the previous years and it was executed as planned while promoting inclusivity. He mentioned that this was demonstrated with the decentralisation of events to all administrative regions.
“Mashramani 2019 was a massive success. Apart from a spectacular and incident free costume and float parade, the festival was executed in a manner that was all-inclusive. The mash route was crammed and D’Urban Park was packed to capacity. With much hard work from the members of committee and Mashramani Secretariat, we were able to
ensure that every region across the beautiful land of Guyana was able to witness one or more of our major calendar events,” said the Minister.
The evening saw prizes being awarded to the Junior Soca Monarch, Jovinski Thorne; Junior Calypso Monarch, Jamal Stuart; Chutney Monarch, Stephen Ramphal; Soca Monarch, Brandon Harding and Calypso Monarch, Kenroy Fraser.
Winners of the children’s float parade, dance and panorama were also rewarded. Smyth Street Nursery, Graham’s Hall Primary and Tucville Secondary won first place prizes for their contributions.
The winner of the regional presentation for the costume parade was Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), followed by Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Region Three copped almost all the prizes for the costume and float parade categories, with the Best Designer Antonio Paul collecting several prizes.
Designer Nelson Nurse was also recognised for a number of bands which he created this year.
National Designer of the Year was presented to Trevor Alfred while Antonio Paul received the prize for Regional Designer of the Year.
Throughout the evening, the audience was entertained by the Guyana Police Force band, Melissa “Vanilla” Roberts and steel pan renditions.
Mashramani 2019 was celebrated under the theme: “Celebrating 49 with victory in mind: Rediscovering El Dorado”.
