Fort-de-France’s Festival of Culture - Culture to provide the strength to look to the future

Established thirty-seven years ago, the Festival of Fort-de-France was given a simple objective from the start, to provide reflection and entertainment, explains Lydie Bétis, director of SERMAC (Service municipal d'Action culturel), an organisation which aims to eliminate cultural alienation and ensure openness to the outside world. This year’s festival has an eloquent title – ‘the strength to look to the future.’

© Hegel Goutier

Reflection

One of the festival’s many events is ‘the Cenacle’ or open air debates held on the seafront on social and political issues where the public gets to grips with a discussion topic centred around two speakers. It is a spectacle in itself. SERMAC also runs courses offering some 20 classes in subjects ranging from the performing arts to plastic arts for a fairly reasonable annual fee.

Entertainment

The festival, which was one of the first to invite Johnny Clegg, this year paid tribute to South Africa to mark Nelson Mandela’s jubilee. Umoja gave the star performance. The various other events included concerts, theatrical dance, modern choreography, lyrical song recitals, exhibitions and pre-premier films, and there were many highlights, not least Kassav.

At least three exceptionally high-quality performances stand out in the first week of the festival. The first is the concert by Fal Frett (‘coldness in the stomach’), a jazz band from Martinique. They are two brothers, Bernard and Jacky, playing the piano and the synthesiser, with Alex on bass. Around 15 artists perform with them, many of them family, as well as guests such as André Woodvine (Barbados) on the saxophone and the flute and the crooner Tony Chasseur or Papa Slam. Bewitching swing and nostalgic melodies from Martinique and the Caribbean, old French songs, rock, jazz and hip-hop.

Couleur Cavé starring Alan and Syto Cavé. This is also a family affair. Syto is one of Haïti’s most talented directors and actors adopting many styles. Alan, his son, has emerged in New York. A landmark project – the duo performance of Alan, La Pèson, and Tanya St-Val – is based on a text by Syto. Sometimes they do each other’s walk-on parts in performances, but this time they decided to produce something together. This has resulted in an astonishing performance. We started with a concert and we’ll finish with … a concert! This is one where lots happens featuring many forms of the performing arts but with a rock atmosphere and rhythm. Remember the name Ado Coker, the American-Japanese pianist.

A little gem: two evenings of sophisticated operatic concert at the wonderful church of Balata and the church of St Christophe on the outskirts of Fort-de-France. With Magali Albertini on the piano, Roselyne Cyrille (a mezzo soprano from Martinique), Carole Venutolo (a lyric soprano from Guadeloupe) and Danielle Bouthillon (lyric-dramatic soprano).

Hegel Goutier