Tobago Heritage Festival

The Folk Fiesta is one of the Festival’s signature events and groups are encouraged to research their topics to ensure creative and authentic presentations.
This year the Fiesta will be divided into 2 categories:

• Village Class for villages/community councils
• Performing Class for organized and established performing companies.

The categories of competition will comprise the following:

• Traditional Folk Song
African Song
• Speech Band
• Creative/Interpretative Folk
• Tobago Folk Dance
• Solo – Negro Spiritual

The Caribbean Night will focus on highlighting various forms of Cultural Expressions in dance, song and drama from Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.

The idea is to have a festive night of pure non-stop and varied entertainment which centers on the celebration of our ancestral joys and the loud proclamation of our Heritage as well as the wider Caribbean support for that spirit.

The various cultural forms to be included in the show are zouk, calypso, reggae, jazz and afro calypso to name a few.

This is a grand celebration, where 10 Great Queens will be depicted.  Each Ancestral Royalty will be escorted on stage by her entourage, which includes drummers, dancers etc.  She will then introduce herself as The Ancestor, giving a brief history of who she is and what she represents.

The village of Plymouth invites all of you to put on some costume and come 'play yourself' at the Old time Tobago type Carnival

Mason Hall takes part in the Heritage Festival presenting 'Games we used to play'

This 2007 presentation will depict some of the social activities and certain cultural indulgences of Tobago children from yesteryear – how they played, and how they enjoyed themselves – at times with their parents.

It is the view of the Mason Hall Village Council that these games may have played a significant role in establishing harmony and self discipline.
This year the production has been enhanced in a manner which incorporates and engulfs these games in a ‘back ah yard’ theatrical presentation, complete with narration, guiding the audience through its various stages.
Games to be displayed include:

• Songs such as We are Romans, the Farmer in the Den, In Ah Fine Castle etc.
• Games such as box carts, bicycles and cotton-reel rollers, scooters, hoo-la hoop and top spinning, skipping with “yella rope”, cricket with coconut bat and musical chairs etc.
• An early morning Road Race and Box Cart Derby, followed by a Street Parade highlighting Village Queens will precede the actual production.

Les Coteaux has always taken part in the Tobago Heritage Festival. Since 1987 they have elected to portray the folk tales and superstitions associated with Tobago folklore.

Les Coteaux’s 2007 presentation of Folk Tales and Superstitions will include the playing of mixed folk songs, lighting of candles, burning of incense and the flashing of superstitious characters.  There will also

be an ancestral call and procession of characters with drummers and Tambrin music prior to the beginning of the production which encompasses all the elements of song, dance and drama.