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Life & Development in Point Fortin:
Silver Jubilee Borough Day Celebrations 2005
Welcome to Point Fortin
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Today we are featuring Marlon Richardson, in recognition of Point Fortin's Silver Jubilee Borough Day Celebrations - April 22nd to May 9th 2005. Marlon Richardson, the deputy mayor of Point Fortin, took time from his schedule to share his experiences in Point Fortin. Also included are some of the features for this year's Borough Day Celebrations.
Marlon Richardson Speaks
April 26, 2005
The Borough was inaugurated on the 30th April 1980. That is when we received full Borough status; there was a big ceremony, and we had our first council being inaugurated around that time with council Lionel Blake being the first Mayor. That is when the development of Point Fortin really started as a Borough.
The Borough Celebrations started somewhere around the mid-eighties. It came at a time when Point Fortin was in an economic downturn. With the removal of Trintoc from Point Fortin, there was a great call-out in the society for job opportunities. At that time, the then council adopted a rather radical move to try to use culture as a means of creating economic activity in the area, and so was born 'Pan on the Move'. The Borough Day Festival is one of the biggest festivals in Trinidad and Tobago. We also have a very educational aspect to it. We do a lot of youth work, and as a matter of fact, we have a national youth day. We have what you call a model council that we are going to do for the children, where the school children are going to be councillors for a day. We also have a consultation on youth and violence, and this is going to take place at the Victor Chinkit Park. I believe Faye Ann Lyon is going to be hosting that. We have a number of things for the children, as well as the Nieherst Science Fair. It is a community-based thing. Of course the hype always goes to the fete.
The first year it started off with just about four to six bands. It has grown expediential after that. The popularity has boomed so much that I do not think the founders really knew what they had started. It has gone now, to a level that is a second carnival in Trinidad and Tobago. People are now choosing to come to Borough Day, instead of the traditional carnival, especially our Point Fortin citizens who are now residents in New York, Washington or wherever they may be. They come and they bring their friends. We have crowds now conservatively of about sixteen to twenty thousand people on the streets of Point Fortin for 'Pan On The Move'.
We have basically created a mini carnival. In fact, I dare say, it is more compact than the traditional carnival, because it happens within a two weeks period, and often on one night you may have five to six events, and that is only the official nights. There are also some events that take place from individual promoters that also add to the itinerary. It has become a massive undertaking to organize and to run this celebration. We like to boast in Point Fortin, that we have started some of the major celebrations in Trinidad. In 1984, emancipation celebrations for the first time held anywhere in the world, was celebrated here in Point Fortin. It started with Mr. John Cupid and the deceased Lancelot Lane, and the then Trintoc (Trinidad and Tobago Oil company) foundation. It started with that group and it has blossomed now, till Emancipation is all over the world. After that, we started the Borough Day Celebrations.
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