Shrewsbury, Westmoreland — The inaugural Petersfield Sugar Cane Festival will take place this Sunday at the local high school in this rural district.

The festival is slated to begin at 8:00am with a parade of tractors from Frome to Petersfield via Hendon, followed by a float with the reigning Petersfield School, Shrewsbury and Jamaica Cultural Development Committee festival queens.

Displays will include a variety of sugar canes and their by-products, as well as non-food products such as bagasse, animal feed and rubbing alcohol. In addition, a forum will be staged to mark the contribution of sugar cane, its primary, secondary and by-products, to the economy of Jamaica.

Petersfield is the logical site for Westmoreland’s first sugar cane festival as it is located on the former lands of the Beckfords – the island’s first sugar cane planters.

The festival is aimed at generating funds for the Petersfield High School, which will be used to create a Reading Centre for struggling students. This is in keeping with the government’s 100% literacy thrust and with HEART NTA’s efforts to introduce learning enhancement facilities in the schools.

Patrons of the festival are the Nigerian High Commissioner to Jamaica, Ambassador Florentina Ukonga and Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica, Jose Fransico Piedra Recurrell.

Many local businesses have already committed to advertise and sell their sugar-related products at the festival, which will include an entertainment package consisting of Black Unity, Hatfield Cultural Group and two plays ‘The Death of F Minus’ and ‘Anancy and Typhoid’.

Major sponsors are the Frome Division of the Sugar Company of Jamaica, Senator Fred Hamatty QC and Swept Away Resort.