World Creole Music Festival - History

History

This festival was conceived out of a need to provide a platform for Dominican musicians and musical expressions, and to increase the island's visibility overseas.The annual World Creole Music Festival was created in 1997 as a means of boosting tourist arrivals to Dominica (during its Independence celebrations), and to increase revenue from stay-over visitors coming to the island for this celebration. The introduction of the festival was also expected to broaden Dominica's tourism product base and to promote creole music as a major musical art form.

The World Creole Music Festival has attracted some of the most renowned musical groups and soloists from the creole-speaking world. Groups such as Kassav, Tabou Combo, Exile One, Gramacks/New Generation, WCK, Ti-Vice, First Serenade, Zouk Machine, Magnum Band, Zin, Taxi Creole, CaRiMi among others as well as solo artists like Ophelia Marie, Tanya St. Val, Sakis, and Francky Vincent have thrilled festival audiences over the years.

The festival in its formative years has given special focus to those musical genres that have their roots in various forms of musical fusion from the countries of the creole-speaking world. To date, musical forms that have gained exposure and dominance at the festival include Cadence-lypso, Kompa, Zouk, Soukous, Bouyon, Zydeco (from the US state of Louisiana).In recent years, the festival has taken on a new dimension with the addition of a few fringe activities, i.e. Creole in the Park and Zouk on the River, two initiatives which encouraged participation from the local private sector.