Pacific Arts
Festival Preparations Excite Solomon Islanders
14th May 2012
Despite
much negative hype last year and the beginning of this year,(that the country
would not be ready to host the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts),
Honiara residents are now excited to see the biggest feast of regional art and
culture July this year.
Yes,
the Pacific region’s biggest art and cultural show, set to start from the 1st
of July to the 14th, will
attract 23 countries have already confirmed to come.
Around
3000 participants and interested visitors from overseas are expected to descend
on this struggling city for accommodation.
Festival
Director Robert Au told SIBC’s Festival Updates radio series, only Pitcairn and
Tuvalu Islands are yet to confirm their number of participants.
Tonga,
on the other hand, has pulled out because the festival is taking place at the
same time the Kingdom is marking their 100th day of mourning after
the death of their King earlier this year.
Au
said there is nothing the Festival Organising Committee could do but accept
that Kingdom’s decision.
“That
is part of our culture and custom – we respect Tonga,” he said.
Meanwhile,
preparations of the festival village at SICHE’s Panatina campus are progressing
well. All traditional houses built of sago palms and mostly local materials are
complete and into final touch-ups by the many contractors who’d been lucky to
involve in this historical preparation.
Au
also quelled rumors people will be charged to go into festival venues. This followed
rumors members of the public would be charged a fee to enter and watch cultural
activities.
“This
is a once-in-a-life-time event and we want all Solomon Islanders or any
overseas visitors to enjoy the feast. This is a rare moment for Solomon Islanders
and a next one is expected after 50 years,” he said.
All
construction work is expected to complete by the end of May and final patching
up during June.
Regional
participants are expected to arrive around the week 23rd June.
Chairman
of the Media Committee David Tuhanuku said his committee is uploading a media
accreditation form this week so to give ample time for overseas media people
wishing to come and cover the two-week event.
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1 comment:
Good morning how are you?
My name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Solomon Islands? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Solomon Islands in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
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