Culture Department to spice up Mash celebrations – director

Mashramani, one of Guyana’s most anticipated celebrations, is on the calendar for next month. In preparation for the celebration, the Department of Culture is already taking steps to give Guyanese that “Mash” feeling before February 23, 2019.
In an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Director of Culture Tamika Boatswain, said the Department is ready to host the celebrations through planned activities countrywide. In order to facilitate this, close to $100 million will be utilised for the 49th Republic anniversary, the Director noted.
A new feature of the observance will be the evening of folk, designed to ‘flair things up’. This event will have several activities including storytelling, folk dances, singing, and everything folk-related to the different ethnicities.
To spice things up, Boatswain said there have already been some pop-up activities geared at creating the Mashramani environment. This is expected to intensify, as time draws near to the big celebration on Saturday, February 23.
The first official activity, an All-Stars concert, will be held in Region One (Barima-Waini) on January 12, to kick-off the celebrations. This will be followed by a steel band concert the following day in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).
Aside from the new features, the young and not so young folks can expect the good ‘ole’ Guyanese soca, calypso and chutney music from local artistes.
The theme for this year’s celebration is ‘Celebrate Mash 2019; With Victory in Mind – Rediscovering El Dorado’. Boatswain said based on the theme, she is anticipating some creative costumes to wow the minds of Guyanese from the designers.
“Mashramani is ours and it is our time to have fun and celebrate and to recognise our achievements as a Republic,” Boatswain said, as she encourages all to support the upcoming events and to keep abreast with dates and times for the events. The schedule of events can be found on the ‘Guyana Mashramani’ Facebook Page.