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2011 LibDay booths will use tents instead
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Posted on Jun 06 2011
The lumber used to construct the booths for the 2010 Liberation Day celebration will no longer be recycled for this year’s festivities as most of them are termite-infested.
“We saved all the materials from last year but the termites are very fast. A lot of them are already termite-infested,” Jonas Barcinas, 2011 Liberation Day Committee overall chair, told Saipan Tribune.
Barcinas said the Saipan Mayor’s Office staff salvaged the other lumber that can still be used by cutting out the termite-infested parts and using the leftovers to build benches or donate them to schools.
Because of this, Barcinas said the booths for this year will be just tents.
According to Barcinas, some 12 vendors have already registered for this year’s Liberation Day celebration, which will be held from June 17 to July 10 at the Garapan Fishing Base.
“The committee decided that we’re going to have ours [Liberation Day festival] right after the Flame Tree festival,” he added.
Barcinas said they considered holding the festival in Koblerville “to move it around” and accommodate more local customers.
“We cannot be stagnant. There’s no such thing as tradition or just holding it here in one venue,” he said.
Barcinas noted that the main focus of the Liberation Day festival is the local customers since only a few tourists visit the festival grounds.
“Last year, I didn’t really see much tourists. But still, that’s part of our community’s job. It’s everyone’s responsibility within the CNMI to attract and lure the tourists to come and join us,” he added.
Barcinas, who also served as overall committee chair last year, said he will strongly support moving the festival to a different venue if he is reappointed as next year’s committee chair.
“If anybody is opposed to that, I think they should come in and step in and help us with the event by taking charge and finding us a good venue or area where the entire community can be provided with great services and entertainment,” he said.
