Awards ceremony concludes Mash 2003
Stabroek News
March 10, 2003
The curtain came down on Mash 2003 when the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports staged the prize giving ceremony at the Umana Yana on Friday.
Mash Co-ordinator, Lennox Canterbury during his brief overview of the activities, noted that competitions were held in seven of the ten administrative regions, a first for the national event.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Gail Teixeira said the Mash committee had made Mashramani a national event in four years instead of the five-year target and activities had moved away from Georgetown to other regions.
This placed additional stress on the committee and their budget, however, the opportunity was used to get everyone involved.
Teixeira said Bartica was next on the list for the staging of Mashramani competitions and was impressed by the tremendous response the calypso finals had received in Anna Regina, Essequibo.
She said the quality of most of the competitions had improved significantly, especially in the steel pan and road march song competitions. Commenting on the flag-raising ceremony at the Parliament buildings, Teixeira described the event as one of importance and significance. She noted most people had forgotten the symbolic nature of the ceremony and so they had failed to participate.
The minister expressed the need for more sponsors to support the competitions and fully support Mashramani.
