All set for 'Main Big Lime'
By Miranda La Rose
All the logistics are in place for an early morning start today to the `Main Big Lime', an activity to promote tourism with a focus on attracting locals, stretching along Main Street from the Cenotaph to Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel. President Bharrat Jagdeo is scheduled to officially open the one-day activity, which showcases a blend of cuisine, art and craft and cultural performances by local, Caribbean and Latin American artistes, at 1000 hrs. Giving Stabroek News a glimpse of what is to be expected today, Minister of Tourism, Geoffrey Da Silva, said that preparations are well in hand. From Lamaha Street to the Bank of Guyana was closed to traffic yesterday as persons had begun erecting their booths. The organisers have had "tremendous support" from the private sector, Da Silva said. While the ministry, the Mayor and City Council and the Guyana Police Force made Main Street available, the private sector financed all the advertisements on radio, television and in the newspapers. Admission is free. The businesses do not have to pay rental for the use of the street and whatever they sell goes back to them. Government's role was co-ordinating and promoting the event. "That is the kind of partnership we want to develop with the private sector," Da Silva said. He stated that Esso and Shell are paying substantial amounts of money for security even though they will not be setting up booths. The security arrangements include 350 to 400 uniformed policemen, a number of plain clothes policemen and off-duty officers who will be participating in the `lime'. There will also be a large number of off-duty persons from the Guyana Fire Service, as well as members of other security services in the city. They will not only police Main Street but other streets. No one will be allowed to park on Main Street. They will park on Lamaha, Carmichael, Middle and other access streets so those areas will also be policed on foot and by vehicles. The cost of cleaning up Main Street after the event will be borne by Demerara Distillers Ltd while the clean-up at State House has been organised by the West End Management Organisation and the cost borne by the Tourism Ministry. Da Silva gave a background as to how the event came about. He said that there were two concepts. The first was developed by former tourism minister Michael Shree Chan and Donald Sinclair and Al Creighton from the University of Guyana, three years ago when there was a cultural fiesta. They had wanted to set up a Guiana Festival where groups coming from Amazonian neighbours could perform. This activity would be placed on the tourism calendar. The second concept is that the country cannot develop its tourism sector without the support of its people. To attain the support of the people they have to be aware and appreciative of what Guyana has to offer in terms of flora and fauna, eco-resorts and other attractions. Apart from economic reasons, he said, most citizens see Guyana from the coastal perspective but they need to know the whole of the country. He said that the organisers are happy that for this reason many of the eco-resorts will have replicas and display what they have on offer. Among those will be Shanklands, Baracara, Emerald Tower and Arrowpoint. To add to the atmosphere, will be the music provided by among others Mingles, the Sheriff Deputies, the Yoruba Singers, the Mighty Invaders and Roy Geddes Steel orchestra. At Hope Street between GA 2000 and the Customs and Excise, the West End Management Organisation and De Son of Anancy will recreate a village and will have traditional African food like conkey and foo-foo. Story telling and African drumming will be included. At Austin House, the residence of Anglican Bishop, Randolph George, there will be a religious festival called `Old Time Religion'. New Thriving will also recreate a China Town and yesterday they were putting up lanterns. Chinese dragon dancing is to be a feature. The Walter Roth Museum and the Guyanese Organisation of Indigenous People's (GOIP) will mount a booth to showcase the Amerindian way of life. Hotel Tower is hosting a `Guyana Fiesta'. The main highlight of the day will be a cultural explosion at State House. Some 120 performances are scheduled. The idea of this activity, Da Silva said is to see how to develop a musical expression in the manner of which St Lucia has developed a jazz festival. They will include performers from Venezuela who are mainly descendants of West Indian immigrants to Venezuela and a 40-member strong band from Suriname. The Guyana contingent is being led by the Couchman family and they are putting different beats to Amerindian songs.
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