Plans afoot for Nevisian reunion/Culturama 40, says Nevis Culture Minister

NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (AUGUST 08, 2013) — Deputy Premier of Nevis and Minister of Culture in the Nevis Island Administration Hon. Mark Brantley said while he was satisfied with the success of Culturama 39, some plans were already afoot for next year’s Culturama, the 40th anniversary of the island’s most prominent cultural festival.

In an interview with the Department of Information on Aug. 8, Mr. Brantley spoke to the introduction of a new feature he believed would lure Nevisians who live overseas to Nevis for the celebration.

“All in all, I think Culturama 39 was a resounding success and it is my hope that Culturama 40 is going to be even bigger and better. We had this year a lot of Nevisians come home. We had a lot of Kittitians come over from St. Kitts to participate in our summer festival [and] I want to thank all of them.

“I am aware that next year we are trying to twin Culturama 40 with a homecoming celebration and so we are hopeful that Nevisians would come home from wherever they may be – in the Virgin Islands, United States and Canada, the United Kingdom in order to have a reunion with their families,” he said.

According to Mr. Brantley, that type of reunion had been introduced with success in other Caribbean islands and he was hopeful the same could be replicated on Nevis.

“I have seen it happen in Dominica, as an example, where they have an annual reunion, a homecoming and so we want to duplicate that here around Culturama, so that the streets and the hotels and the homes are filled with our own people coming back to celebrate with their brethren, their family members here.

“So that is something that we are working very hard on. We already have groups in England and in Canada who are indicating they have teams of people who will be coming down next year and so we are hoping for an even bigger and better Culturama,” he said.