Sto­ry and pho­tos by

Rishi Ra­goonath

Last Sat­ur­day’s in­clement weath­er did not damp­en the en­thu­si­asm of the var­i­ous groups from the Vic­to­ria West dis­trict as who show­cased their cul­tur­al tal­ents in the pre­lim­i­nary round of the Prime Min­is­ter’s Best Vil­lage Com­pe­ti­tion at Ste Madeleine Sec­ondary School.

Per­for­mances in a va­ri­ety of tra­di­tion­al and con­tem­po­rary cat­e­gories, in­clud­ed tas­sa drum­ming, chut­ney songs, folk mu­sic, spir­i­tu­al songs, and ca­lyp­so med­leys. En­er­getic dis­plays of East In­di­an, French, African and spir­i­tu­al dances cap­ti­vat­ed the au­di­ence, while rhyth­mic drum seg­ments added pow­er­ful beats to the fes­tiv­i­ties.

The event high­light­ed the re­gion’s rich cul­tur­al di­ver­si­ty and the ded­i­ca­tion of youth and com­mu­ni­ty groups to pre­serv­ing T&T’s artis­tic her­itage.

Win­ners will ad­vance to the next round of the com­pe­ti­tion lat­er this year.