WESTERN BUREAU — After a two-year hiatus, the popular Trelawny yam festival will be held this year, according to the organisers, the South Trelawny Environmental Agency (STEA).

This time however, the event will be staged in the Albert Town Square in the parish at a cost of $4 million.

According to STEA chairman, Hugh Dixon, the Albert Town business community has fully endorsed this year’s festival and will in fact be putting up most of the money.

“The Albert Town business community is fully supportive of the event and so far, more than 30 of them have agreed to provide sponsorship of the event,” Dixon said.

He added that STEA had also approached its traditional sponsors and they have responded very well.

“The event will definitely be held on Easter Monday, April 21, in the streets of Albert Town this year. We will be cordoning off the community at both ends, and traffic coming from North Trelawny to the Manchester end will be diverted,” Dixon told the Observer.

The festival was first held in 1997 when STEA was in need of funds to undertake community and environmental projects. Over the next three years, the event grew rapidly and attracted both local and overseas patrons.

During its last staging in the year 2000, STEA chalked up losses of more than $400,000, although a record crowd of approximately 12,000 patrons turned up for the event.

At the time, the STEA cited the lack of a proper venue to stage the event as the main contributing factor for the losses incurred and mooted that a new venue would have to be found to stage the event.

A site was later identified in the Spring Gardens area of the parish and the Ministry of Agriculture was approached to assist in the provision of funds for the infrastructural development of the location.

Last February, the then information minister, Colin Campbell, announced that the agriculture ministry was authorised by Cabinet to inject $4 million in equity into the project. He also said then, that government personnel and equipment would have been made available to clear the site so that the festival could be held in 2002.

But, Dixon told the Observer on Thursday that the Spring Gardens site had not yet been developed because the government failed to provide the assistance it had promised.

“We took the decision to stage the event in the Albert Town square this year because we were unsuccessful in preparing the site at Spring Gardens. This is because funds allocated by Cabinet to put in the infrastructure has not been received, so we just have to find another location,” he explained.

The festival seeks to promote yam and its by-products, to promote South Trelawny as an eco-tourism destination and to enable the area to attract investments. The event is also staged to raise funds for STEA programmes.

Activities at this year’s festival will include culinary displays, cycle races, yam king and queen contests, best dressed donkey and goat contests as well as farmers’ field day.