About forty persons turned up at the Grenville Market Square last Sunday to witness the official opening of the 20th Anniversary of the Rainbow City Festival held in the big parish of St. Andrew's from July 31 to August 1.

This year celebrations was in sharp contrast to previous years when hundreds flooded the Market, the official Festival site to witness the cultural display as well as purchase and view the many booths set up by private sector companies and persons from the farming community in the parish.

Rainbow City coincides with Emancipation week-end that marked the official end to slavery in Grenada 167 years ago. The turnout on the streets was described by many as the smallest in years and the mood of the revellers considered to be rather low-keyed.

GRENADA TODAY solicited the views of some patrons who were of the view that not enough effort was put into this year's celebration. They believe that the planners of the event, the St. Andrew's Development Organisation (SADO) needs to find "new blood" to bring some more life into the staging of the event.

One vendor said that because the celebration has nothing new to offer people are not attending and and as such this is bad for business people like herself who use the occasion to make some money.

The bamboos, colourful lights and bunting which are usually hung across the streets by SADO as beautification as well as the several booths in the market were noticeably absent. President of SADO Dr. Reginald Buckmire told GRENADA TODAY that the organisation decided to scale down the festival this year because of the impact of hurricanes Ivan and Emily on the parish.

He pointed out that the town of Grenville also has to grapple with the problem of flooding especially when it rains heavily and so a decision was taken not to do the event on a large scale as earlier planned.

Dr. Buckmire disclosed that another problem experienced was the inability of the organisers to source the bamboo to decorate the streets due to a lack of finance and the non-arrival of government's $EC15,000.00 subvention that was promised.
In addition, he said the festival was not able to attract sponsors although two local companies had given commitment but did not follow through with the promise.

The SADO President is confident that next year's Festival will be bigger and better since the aim is to get more village groups in the parish involved in the event. Governor General Sir. Daniel Williams in declaring the event open told the SADO executive that there is a need for them to review the Festival.

He encouraged the organisation to set up think-tank committees to look at the pros and cons of Rainbow City with the aim of putting plans and programmes together and deciding on the way forward. Director of Grenada Education & Development Programme (GRENED) Dr. Dessima Williams who gave the feature address pointed out that although slavery has ended legally, forced labour is still around.

She stated that human trafficking still exists and that people are forced into prostitution against their will. According to Dr. Williams, although one can speak of emancipation, the fact remains that poverty, violence, political exclusion, war, hunger, diseases, terrorism and fear among people still exist.

The GRENED Director believes that in order to defeat the new forms of slavery there is a need for all sides to work together in large coalitions. There were only two booths on display at the festival - one put on by C&M Tin Shop from Telescope and another by Hayling Charles.

Cultural performances came from the Birch Grove Lancers Dancers and the St. George's based Theatre of Unique Music Drum and Arts (TUMDA).