Officials of the National Independence Committee announced plans on Tuesday for the upcoming 33rd independence celebrations, which will begin June 29 and end July 24.
The theme for this year’s celebrations is "Past, Present and Future: A Bahamian Culturama".
Last year, the committee voted to honour the outstanding men of the nation. This year, in keeping with the tradition, the country will be honouring outstanding women from each Family Island.
There are several categories in which the honorees will be recognized including education, sports, law enforcement, authors, arts and culture, public service, politics, business and finance, community, religion, health and civics.
Winston Saunders, chairman of the committee, said there is a sub-committee that has been receiving names of the persons who will be honoured.
"The committee has also been in contact with Family Island administrators in an attempt to establish a local wall of fame and a booklet that will give a small paragraph on those persons and the work they have done in that community," he said.
He explained why the Wall of Fame would be important to this year’s celebrations.
"We decided to coalesce the wall of fame with independence because we are paying respect to things Bahamian and those Bahamians who give us reason to celebrate," Mr. Saunders said.
"We want children on every island to walk home from school and see the accomplishments of their neighbours and relatives from their own communities and have a reason to be proud," he added.
There will also be a showing of two classic Bahamian plays that will be featured such as "You Can Lead A Horse To Water" by Winston Saunders, which will be held on June 29-July 24 at the Dundas Centre and Sammie Swain written by E. Clement Bethel at the National Performing Arts Centre.
On Saturday July 1 the Legacy Ball will be held at the Wyndham Crystal Palace Ballroom. On Sunday there will be a National Dance Presentation at the KGL Issacs Gym at 4pm.
On Monday, July 3 there will be a Gospel Arts festival in honour of E. Clement Bethel. The following day there will be a Bahamian Music Concert at Arawak Cay featuring various Bahamian artists. On Wednesday there will be a music drama and dance festival, which will also be dedicated to E. Clement Bethel.
On Thursday, July 6 "Run Come See" will be held which will consists of music and story telling.
The following day will be National Pride day held at 1p.m. to 6 p.m. at Rawson Square. The Junkanoo Summer Festival will follow at 6p.m on Bay Street.
Peter Deveaux-Isaacs, assistant chairman of the National Independence Committee, said the committee is hoping that National Pride Day will be a reoccurring success.
"We thought that we would feature National Pride Day again this year [because] last year it was such a hit," Mr. Isaacs said.
National Pride Day will be a celebration of music and dance. There will also be a silent gardening competition. In the competition officials will discreetly in various areas look at gardens and give awards for the best kept gardens.
On Saturday, July 8th the Independence Float Parade will begin at 10 am, followed by Junkanoo Summer festivals at Arawak Cay at 2pm, Independence Police and Defense Force Beat Retreat at Rawson Square at 4 pm and there will also be the first showing of the play Sammie Swain at the National Performing Arts Centre.
Calvin Bowford, the member in charge of the independence float said that he would like to appeal to businesspersons to become involved with the float parade.
"We would like to appeal to the corporate entities to come on board with this because many of the floats are expensive and we would like to see real good floats this year," he said.
On Sunday, there will be a second showing of the play Sammie Swain National Performing Arts Centre at 4 pm. Later that night at 9 pm Bahamians can look forward to the flag rising at Clifford Park, which will also feature the inspection of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahmas Defense Force by the governor general.
This will lead into the fireworks at 12am on Independence morning, followed by a All Night Bahamian Music Concert, The People’s Rush out, that will both be held at Arawak Cay.
Mr. Deveaux-Isaacs also indicated that they would like to keep the theme as much as possible.
"We would like to stick as close to the theme as possible in encouraging neighbourhoods to celebrate by having neighbourhood functions," he said.
Mr. Saunders indicated that though these celebrations this year will be huge, the committee is looking forward to the 35th anniversary celebrations.
"Though these celebrations are big, they will not be merely as big as the ones hoped for on our 35th anniversary. Last year we celebrated men, this year we are celebrating women, next year we hope to celebrate both men and women," he said.
