THE crowd was disappointing but corn and its by-products were in abundance at the inaugural staging of the Trelawny corn festival held in Wait-a-Bit, on Monday, National Heroes Day.

And in spite of the poor turnout, chairman of the organising committee, David Rowe, said he was satisfied with the staging of the event.

“I am pleased, I think we have achieved our objectives,” Rowe told the Observer. The objectives of the festival, he said, were to introduce corn as a viable short-term crop, to raise funds for the purchase of computers and furniture for the farmers resource and training centre, and to showcase the by-products of corn.

The festival cost $1 million to stage, and according to Rowe, the planning was hampered by the lack of telephone service in the area. He said the committee would shortly be making representation to Cable and Wireless Jamaica Limited to have telephone service installed.

But despite that shortcoming, the day’s event got underway shortly before midday with the marching band from the police youth club.

Soon afterwards, the festival was officially declared open by member of parliament for the area, Doreen Chen. Throughout the day, the Breadwood Mento Band and First Choice Disco entertained the small but lively crowd; and there were also selections from the Christiana High School Steel Band, and cultural items from the Albert Town primary and high schools.

Patrons also took the opportunity to view displays mounted by RADA, Agro Grace and Seprod.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about the festival was the culinary competition, which showcased many dishes from using corn as the main ingredient. A number of individual schools and community groups participated in the competition.

Some of the more popular exhibits were the milk-free corn ice cream, corn bread, corn wine, cornballs and corn rock bun.

The Lowe River All Age school’s display which included honey raisin corn bread, orange peanut corn muffin and coconut corn cake were well-received by the patrons. Other items on exhibition were corn muffin, corn cake with corn flakes topping, corn pone, corn power punch and the corn pump-it-up drink which was a hit especially among the men.

In the school category section of the culinary arts competition, Albert Town High School copped the prizes for the best bread and corn muffin, best main dish and best beverage. The prize for the best dessert went to Lowe River Primary and Junior High.

Christ Apostolic Church was awarded the prizes of best corn muffin and best beverage, while All Sides Citizens Association won the prizes for the best main dish and dessert in the community group category.

“I am confident that the festival is going to help to boost the production of corn in the parish now that people are more fully aware of the many ways the product can be used,” said Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) parish manager for Trelawny, Bernard Goffe.