SUNDAY 3 MARCH 2019 – UWI TODAY
11
They called it
“A Sense of Home”
. On February 24, 2019, the
Department
of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA)
in the Faculty of Humanities and
Education held a special celebration. The Old Yard, DCFA’s annual festival
of traditional Carnival, folklore, art and culture, turned 10-years-old. For a
decade now, patrons have entered a passageway through time to become part
of a cultural experience that stretches all way back to 19
th
Century Trinidad.
Once you enter the Yard, “you in it”. It’s a magical experience, enjoyed by the many children, foreign visitors,
culture lovers and lovers of Carnival that come out to the sprawling Open Campus Quadrangle at Gordon Street,
and came out to the DCFA’s classic Agostini Street headquarters before that.
But while the patrons enjoy the show, the DCFA - and its students – do the work. Over its 10 years The Old
Yard has become a teaching tool for young festival managers and performers. It has helped to build a community
of culture professionals. It has helped to not only rescue but breathe new life into waning traditions. It has made an
aspect of our history so vibrant that it has become our future.
That is The Old Yard’s greatest gift to Trinidad and Tobago. It has taken old mas’ and turned it into something
fresh and new. What better way is there to keep the culture going strong?
PHOTOS PAGES 11-14: ANEEL KARIM
The Old Yard 10
th
Anniversary Special
10
Years
OLD
YARD
