WESTMORELAND — The successful staging of the inaugural Westmoreland Curry Festival has left organisers ready to do a repeat performance next year.

“We intend to do it for next year and to correct whatever flaws and whatever gaps were in this year’s show,” said chairman of the festival committee, Norman Reid. “And after that we will probably take a rest and see what we do for the other year but definitely (there will be a show) for next year.”

He estimated that they had raised about $1M from the show, which was staged at the Mannings High School. The proceeds are expected to be ploughed back into the community, with plans afoot to use some funds generated to overhaul the high school’s sewerage system.

According to principal Bonito White, the existing bathrooms are inadequate and antiquated with pits that are frequently full. It now costs the school about $100,000 a month to empty these pits.

The Savanna-la-mar Women’s Crisis Centre is also slated to benefit from the proceeds of the historic festival, which showcased a wide variety of dishes nicely garnished with curry and was swamped with thousands of people.

Patrons attending the festival had high praise for the initiative and lauded the organisers for staging the Curry Festival.

“I must commend the organisers and in particular Mr Reid because they are putting Mannings on the map,” said attorney and past student of Mannings High, Vernon Ricketts.

And Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke, who is also a past student of the institution where the festival was staged, lauded the idea and spoke of the tremendous potential of such an activity.

“One of the important thing is that all these festivals — whether it is Curry Festival, Jerk Festival, Shrimp Festival — they all have an agricultural base, so when people want to write off agriculture, think about all these festivals,” the minister said.