Banner for Indigenous Music Festival
The 12 of October is celebrated as Columbus Day in Belize and among the activities the government is promoting through the National Institute of Culture and History, NICH, is a “World” Indigenous Music festival. The day is also known as Pan American Day and Dia De La Raza and is mainly celebrated in the North and West of the country that has a rich Latino and Mestizo culture. But NICH has decided to throw government support behind a new event – in Belize City. Part of the NICH blurb in its press release:
“The very enthusiastic, Mr. Gregory Vernon, Director of the Institute of Creative Arts, NICH, declared, “IndigeNOWbelize, World Indigenous Music (WIM) Festival is a bold new initiative of the National Institute of Culture and History (NICH) intended to achieve two broad objectives in the long term: to shape and embolden Belize’s music identity, and to secure for it a recognized place on the world music scene.
“The sound of Belize is as diverse as the cultural strands that make up its people. IndigeNOWbelize WIM Festival will privilege this sound! The Festival will be an annual event, with a different indigenous sound each year. This year the sound is Amerindian with a special focus on the Maya, in celebration of the end of the 13th Baktun. Whatever the sound in a given year, Belize music will be center stage.”
Two things of note here. Firstly this “World” music festival is a stretch. The list of stars:
Florencio Mes Harp, Toledo, Belize
Alma Belicenia Marimba, Cayo, Belize
Maya Bwai Band, Toledo, Belize
Ascenthium Band/Pablo Collado Belize & Cayo
Lucio & the New Generation, Orange Walk,
Ballet Folklorico de Guatemala,Guatemala
Las Pasteles Verdes Band, Peru
Of these, a ballet group from Guatemala and an eighties pop music band from Peru hardly qualify or fit in to the indigenous nomenclature. Los Pasteles Verdes had their heyday 30 years ago and most recently appeared on Ambergris Cay for the Costa Maya public dance. They (or their promoter) must have seen a good market here to make a redux appearance.
Secondly, the venue the festival has suffered a little setback. Public outrage, especially from sports fans that have for years been grumbling about bureaucrats organizing public dances on the football pitch at the MCC Grounds, has come to a head. After a campaign from an emboldened Football Federation of Belize ably assisted by Amandala publisher Evan Hyde who wrote an editorial in his newspaper last week on the issue, led to an announcement that the Indigenous Music Festival was now looking for an alternative venue. In a TV interview FFB President Ruperto Vicente said:
“I must make it clear that we’re not against any cultural fair. But we are against the use of the MCC Grounds for such activities. The reason being is that if you had visited the grounds after the King and Queen Carnival, vehicles were driven on the pitch, and the surface of the pitch was seriously damaged. That endangers our players when they are playing games.”
The festival is planned to be an annual event, with a rotating theme. This year it is Maya Music. The event starts in the evening and runs to 2 in the morning with a public dance. Presumably party goes will not be dancing to the tunes of a Maya harp or ballet music. Which is where the eighties pop group from Peru comes in.