The 2025 staging of the annual Festival of the National Performing Arts Finals began on April 3 with an opening ceremony at the Little Theatre in St Andrew.

Performers from across the island will display their talents as they vie for top honours in various categories, such as traditional folk forms, drama, speech, music and dance.

From April 3 to 4, there will be performances of the traditional folk forms, including maypole, quadrille and dinki-mini. The festival concludes on May 5, with ‘Drumfest’ at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre in St Andrew.

The Deaf Dance Festival will be held at the same venue on April 26.

Dance finals are scheduled from April 10 to 12, and Drama from April 14 to 15 at the Little Theatre.

Music Finals will be held from April 28 to 29 and May 6 at the Little Theatre, and speech finals will be held from April 30 to May 2, also at the Little Theatre.

The signature event is being organised by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), an agency of the Ministry of Culture and Entertainment.

Andrew Brodber, JCDC director of arts development and training at the JCDC, explained that preparations are progressing smoothly.

“We are putting all the pieces together, contacting persons, making the notifications for awards and ensuring everything is in place. We are in preparation mode, organising tents and equipment and handling other technical aspects of things,” he told JIS News.

According to Brodber, the finals will determine the champions in the performing arts.

“This year, 2025, we have an impressive group of gold medalists. We are inviting the top performers in each category to join us at the national finals. So, that showdown is where we will determine the champions,” he explained.

Brodber noted that each year brings a new cohort of performers and fresh content, and the public will always see new and different performances at the finals.

“Sometimes we have fresh, entertaining content that we deliberately reserve for special occasions. So, we have new talent and exciting performances every year, and that’s what makes this such a great annual event,” he added.