This weekend, Island Harbour will be the main centre of activity with the holding of Festival Del Mar, now in its eighth year. As was the case for the past five years, LIME Anguilla is the platinum sponsor, contributing this time EC$10,000.
On Tuesday this week, a cheque for that amount was presented to the new Chairman, Matthew Webster, who replaces Othlyn Vanterpool. Mr. Webster was accompanied to the cheque presentation ceremony by Mr Vaughnie Harrigan, Vice Chairman.
LIME’s Marketing Manager, Jade Reymond, said that any celebration of the culture of Anguilla was extremely important to LIME as a corporate citizen. “We look forward to this year’s partnership. We know that Festival Del Mar is an anticipated weekend of activities,” she stated. “Our sponsorship entails quite a number of aspects. Our monetary contribution is just over ten thousand EC dollars as we try to continue our partnership. We have taken a step further to be able to provide Wi-Fi service for the weekend which is part of our new initiative…which allows us to provide dedicated internet access over the two days of the event. We are also providing the prizes for the raffles, and different vendors have also reached out to us for other types of support.”
Replying, Mr. Webster said: “We are excited about the eighth year of Festival Del Mar. There have been some changes. One of them is the location of the stage. We wanted to make sure that the festival can be remembered as a festival of the sea so we now have the stage, where the artistes will be performing, actually located in the sea instead of on the rocks. We will have our B class boat race on Saturday, which is sponsored by Social Security – and on Sunday we will have the A class boat race sponsored by Sheriva Luxury Villas. We also have the small model boat race involving 15-20 boats in the competition. There is going to be a swimming competition which is sponsored by Eddie Baird, one of Anguilla’s great swimmers back in the day. We look forward to seeing that competition as we have a legend…[of] displaying our skills as far as swimming is concerned.
“We will also have some great entertainment. We will be showing local as well as regional talent. Roxy and Natalie, as well as our legendary North Sound Brass, will also be performing on Saturday night.” The visiting artistes will be “Rudy Live” of the US Virgin Islands and “Richie Face” of Jamaica and VP Records.
Vaughnie Harrigan gave a further rundown of the activities which will include sunfish races; a deep-sea fishing competition in which some six fishermen from St. Maarten and a number of fishermen from Anguilla will be participating; a kiddies fishing competition on the wharf; Kelly’s crab race; and entertainment by local string bands including the Movements Band, DJ Castro and DJ Legend.
The emphasis, however, will be on the various categories of fish dishes and other cultural food.
Two visiting journalists from the United States, facilitated by the Anguilla Tourist Board, will provide publicity for Festival Del Mar. Several other groups and individuals from the United States and elsewhere are expected to visit Anguilla for the occasion.
Festival Del Mar is receiving much assistance from the Department of Youth and Culture which has been among the various sponsors over the years, as well as from Malliouhana-Anico Insurance Company (MAICO).
