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Valentine’s weekend saw another successful Placencia Sidewalk Arts Festival. Artists from across the country including Pen & Ingrid Cayetano, Adolfo Duran, and Image Factory made their way to Placencia’s famous Sidewalk to set up their wares. It was an art lover’s dream come true! Paintings, sculptures, wood carvings, jewelry and functional art - handcrafted drums and carved furniture is just a sampling of items that were found at the Sidewalk Art Fest. And Placencia’s Sidewalk was full of people who came out especially to enjoy the weekend.
Performing artists came out in droves to take part in the festival as well. A range of rock, classic guitar, reggae, country, folk, blues music adorned the stage as well as a special fire dancing show after dark on Saturday evening.
The Rotary Club of Placencia held their annual auction to help raise funds for a new pump for the volunteer fire department and for new bathrooms at the St John’s Memorial. Saturday night D’eclipse Entertainment Club hosted a dance that night with all the proceeds of the gate being given to the Placencia BTIA.
An unexpected treat was a surprise visit from our Minister of Tourism, Hon. Manuel Heredia, who had heard about the festival and wanted to come see it for himself and ended up taking part in the festival’s opening ceremonies. The sidewalk truly bubbled with color, music and energy on that lovely weekend.
For the first time the Placencia BTIA organized an “Embrace Art” booth where artists that could not make the festival could still send and have their art on display and for sale. Several took part in the cooperative booth including Leo Vasquez, Terry Wright, & Lita Krohn. This will be something that will become a regular part of the festival.
The Placencia BTIA bar was managed by Cassie Dial of Barefoot Beach Bar and tended by an energetic volunteer work force including Tatyana Alpuche, Tamara Alpuche, Sandy Johnson, Wini Mertens, Annette Vernon, Pablo Mendoza, David Taylor, Stephanie Wandke, Alyson & Zach Pohlman, and Heidi Nunez.
Along the sidewalk we were lucky to have a star crew of help including Lydia Villanueva, Susan Hall, Yoli Brown, Lou Nicholat, Ritzie Lemus, Kylon Garbutt, Karl Lovell, Boney Reynolds, Darryn & Tessa Eiley, Jonelle Dial, Logan Westby, Adamas Clark, Penny Dial, Tony Parks, Chris Salmon, Pandora Guadino, Claudia Hardeggar, Ian Westby, Natasha Eiley, Harald Wallen, Boy Wallen, Eric Westby, Benji Eiley, Lita Krohn, Evan Bull, Patrick, Glen, Giovanni, & Dominic Rotier.
Entourage Movements, our home grown DJ’s, Canadian rocker Shawn Brady, blues harmonica Kungo Charlie, Rene Leslie Sr, the Beach Babes, the Lost Reefers, Mary McKee, Alex Bull, Kylon Eiley, Alan Lesclide, Karl Lovell, Kylon Garbutt, Yellow Man, Bernadette Gardiner, Shawn Young, Brianna Mayen, Stephanie Wandke, Joycenara & Walter, and Graham Berrie.
Businesses and other organizations that leant support to the festival include National Institute of Culture and History (NICH), Love FM, Wallen’s Market, Serenade Guesthouse, Pirate’s Grill, Barefoot Beach Bar, Splash Dive Shop, D’Eclipse Entertainment Club, Tipsy Tuna Sports Bar, The North Beach, Miramar Apartments, Sunova Beach Gift Shop, Platinum Designs, ICB Seine Bight, Wild Orchid Properties, Doran’s Services, Maya Beach Hotel, and Evan’s Place.
For the first time the Placencia BTIA took on the role of coordinating the event which turned out to be successful with the support of many volunteers. We are fortunate that the Placencia Peninsula Arts Association created such a wonderful event to showcase the beauty of Placencia and the incredible artists that this country has. It is an event that we feel is important for our community and we will do our best to see that it continues and improves. We want to thank everyone that took part in the festival in any way - we could not have done it without you!!!
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