Third Rockstone Fish Festival Launched

Oct 02, 2008 News

From left: GTA Director, Indranauth Haralsingh; Tourism Minister, Manniram Prashad; Chairman of the Fish Festival committee, Selwyn Lancaster; Wilfred Simmons and other members of the committee in the background

Fishing enthusiasts from Guyana and further afield will have the opportunity once again to put their skills to the test at the third Rockstone Fish Festival.
The organizers vow that this year’s event will be the biggest and best yet.
This year’s Rockstone Fish Festival was launched yesterday at the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce boardroom.
Present at the launch were Minister of Tourism, Manniram Prashad; Guyana Tourism Authority Director, Indranauth Haralsingh; Chairman of the Fish Festival Committee, Selwyn Lancaster; Advisor to the Committee, Wilfred Simmons; and Transportation Officer, Coretta Braithwaite.
Selwyn Lancaster said that this year the festival will run for two days, an expansion of the one-day event, from October 25. Lancaster said that those two days will be filled with exciting events.   
Events include fishing competition, fish cooking contests, kayaking contests, and several others.
Committee advisor, Wilfred Simmons, said that the reason for expanding the festival to two days is mainly due to request by several persons that attended last year and who wanted to camp overnight.
This year, Simmons added, there will be facilities in place for camping. And for the first time, Rockstone will be holding a beauty pageant.
Five contestants of the pageant were present at the launch yesterday.
Tourism Minister, Manniram Prashad, said that the Rockstone Fish Festival started in 2006 as a collaborative effort by Ministry of Tourism and Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) and the Linden community.
He noted that in May 2002 Rockstone was featured on the cover of National Geographic Explorer Magazine as a top fishing destination in the world. Minister Prashad added that a US film crew is due in Guyana today to do a documentary on birding and sports fishing.
Lancaster noted that next year the organizers will be marketing the fish festival as an Amazon adventure. He also assured that they are on top of marketing the festival.
This year’s fish festival is expected to include participation from other countries.
Rockstone is located approximately 18 miles from Mackenzie, Linden, and is renowned as a fishing community where the waters are teeming with several varieties of fish including Haimara, Bassa, Arawana, Lukanani (Bass), Hassar, Perai, Tiger Fish and the Mighty Arapaima.