JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

This year’s In­de­pen­dence Day fire­works dis­play will be com­plete­ly silent, but of­fi­cials promise the cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tions lead­ing up to it will be loud, vi­brant and pa­tri­ot­ic.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day, Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment com­mu­ni­ca­tions strate­gist Jerome Lewis as­sured the pub­lic that the fire­works dis­plays in both Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do would be us­ing silent py­rotech­nics.

“We’re go­ing to have chore­o­graphed py­rotech­nics and a ma­jor fire­works dis­play. And yes, we will be pre­sent­ing silent fire­works to re­duce the loud bangs and the im­pact on pets and peo­ple who may live near­by. All of this will be co­or­di­nat­ed with the rel­e­vant avi­a­tion, fire, se­cu­ri­ty and reg­u­la­to­ry au­thor­i­ties,” Lewis said.

His con­fir­ma­tion comes two weeks af­ter De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge said the dis­play would fea­ture a com­bi­na­tion of tra­di­tion­al and silent fire­works, along with a drone show.

In ad­di­tion to the drone pre­sen­ta­tion, spec­ta­tors will be treat­ed to two ma­jor cul­tur­al events: a pro­ces­sion along the pa­rade route and a cul­tur­al show­case lat­er in the af­ter­noon at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

“Fol­low­ing the mil­i­tary com­po­nent of the pa­rade, the min­istry will be en­gag­ing a cul­tur­al pro­ces­sion. This will start at the Queen’s Hall car park and pro­ceed to the St Ann’s round­about, where it will en­ter the pa­rade route. Along that route, you’re go­ing to have two dec­o­rat­ed mu­sic trucks, a ded­i­cat­ed steel or­ches­tra, tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters, tas­sa mu­si­cians, drum­mers, rhythm per­form­ers, dancers and oth­er cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers,” Lewis ex­plained.

He said peo­ple who miss the pa­rade will have an­oth­er op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­pe­ri­ence the cul­tur­al pre­sen­ta­tions be­fore the fire­works dis­play, via a”Kids Zone” at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah from 5 pm.

“At that zone, there will be recre­ation­al ac­tiv­i­ties, tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters and a lot of youth-ori­ent­ed cul­tur­al en­ter­tain­ment. One hour lat­er, the In­de­pen­dence Day cul­tur­al show­case will be­gin. There you’re go­ing to have steel­pan, ca­lyp­so, so­ca, chut­ney, tas­sa, folk and the­atri­cal pre­sen­ta­tions,” he said.

This year’s cel­e­bra­tions are be­ing held un­der the theme “One Ser­vice; One Peo­ple; One Sto­ry.” Lewis said the cul­tur­al show­case will pay trib­ute to gen­er­a­tions of artistes and cul­tur­al prac­ti­tion­ers who have pre­served and pro­mot­ed the na­tion’s tra­di­tions.

Asked about the cost of the cel­e­bra­tions and the con­trac­tors se­lect­ed for the drone and silent fire­works dis­plays, Lewis said he did not have that in­for­ma­tion.

Two weeks ago, Cul­ture Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin said the pro­cure­ment process was still un­der­way, with quo­ta­tions be­ing sought from lo­cal providers and sub­mis­sions un­der eval­u­a­tion.

This year’s In­de­pen­dence Day pa­rade has been re­lo­cat­ed north of the North Stand and Grand Stand area, clos­er to Pres­i­dent’s House. All oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties will re­main in the tra­di­tion­al North Stand and Grand Stand sec­tion of the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

Be­cause of the re­lo­ca­tion of the pa­rade square, how­ev­er, the mil­i­tary pa­rade will fol­low a slight­ly mod­i­fied route, ac­cord­ing to Chief of De­fence Staff Com­modore Don Po­lo.

“When the troops leave the Sa­van­nah for the route march, they will tra­verse the east­ern side of the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, head­ing to the top of Fred­er­ick Street. From the top of Fred­er­ick Street, they will pro­ceed along Fred­er­ick Street and then turn right on­to Park Street,” Po­lo said.

He not­ed that the re­main­der of the route, in­clud­ing sec­tions along Tra­garete Road and Long Cir­cu­lar Road, would re­main un­changed.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin as­sured the pub­lic that com­pre­hen­sive se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures would be in place but de­clined to pro­vide op­er­a­tional de­tails. She al­so con­firmed that ad­di­tion­al pre­cau­tions had been im­ple­ment­ed to pro­tect the Prime Min­is­ter and Gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials who have re­ceived threats.

With a T20 crick­et match al­so sched­uled for In­de­pen­dence Day, West­ern Di­vi­sion head, ACP Garvin Hen­ry, ad­vised pa­trons to park re­spon­si­bly. He said wreck­ers would be op­er­at­ing through­out the day and said there would be no des­ig­nat­ed park­ing for any of the events, as park­ing at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah would be pro­hib­it­ed for the en­tire day. Park-and-ride arrange­ments, he said, are still be­ing fi­nalised.