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Host Guam announces its delegation to FestPac 2016
The 12th Festival of Pacific Arts Organizing Committee announced their selection of 500 members who now make up the official Guam Delegation to FestPac 2016.The announcement took place at the Chamorro Lunar Calendar Festival in Tumon with artists, performers and practitioners in attendance waiting to hear their name called.
As the host country, Guam is allowed up to 500 delegates. Of this 500 strong delegation, 414 are Council of Arts and Humanities Master Artisans and local residents as well as 86 members of the Diaspora who were announced recently in California. As of today, they have become one official Guam delegation that will represent twenty-four disciplines under the Traditional Arts, Literary Arts, Performing Arts and Visual Arts Categories. Additionally, all 500 delegates were bestowed the title of Honorary Ambassadors of the Hafa Adai Spirit, a part of Guam’s Hafa Adai Pledge Program.
“Now that we’ve announced the Guam delegation, it’s time for the artists and groups to work fine tune their presentation,” said Monica Okada Guzman, Festival Programming Chairperson. “It’s the largest delegation ever for Guam’s participation in the festival, and we are very excited. Now we can get to work to prepare to represent Guam.”
Twenty-seven nations throughout the Pacific will be holding the same selection process, and by festival time, the FestPac Coordinating Committee anticipates 2,500 to 3,000 delegates to participate in the festival.
About the Festival
Known as the “Olympics of Pacific Arts”, this traveling festival is hosted every four years by a different country in the Pacific and will feature delegations from 27 participating island nations. FestPac was conceived by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) to stop the erosion of traditional practices by sharing and exchanging culture. FestPac 2016 will take place on Guam from May 22 through June 4, 2016. The Pacific Community is the custodian of the Festival of Pacific Arts, which was initiated in by the Pacific Community at the first edition held in 1972.
