CARIFESTA, the Caribbean's festival for promoting culture, diversity and creativity will be held in Barbados next year, the first festival since 2019.

The announcement was made by the Chairman of CARICOM, Dr Irfaan Ali, President of Guyana, at the closing press conference of the 46th Regular Meeting of the Conference of the Heads of Government of CARICOM in Georgetown. Dr Ali declared:

“CARIFESTA will be bright and beautiful on the sunny beaches of Barbados in August 2025”

CARIFESTA is the Caribbean Festival of Arts, an annual festival for promoting arts of the Caribbean. The aims are to:

  • depict the life of the people of the region - their heroes, morale, myth, traditions, beliefs, creativeness, ways of expression
  • show the similarities and the differences of the people of the Caribbean and Latin America
  • create a climate in which art can flourish so that artists would be encouraged to return to their homeland
  • awaken a regional identity in Literature
  • stimulate and unite the cultural movement throughout the region.

The last CARIFESTA was held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2019. The next event, which was scheduled to be held in Antigua and Barbuda, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in 2022 Antigua and Barbuda withdrew from hosting the event.