THIS year marks the sixth staging of the Kingston on the Edge (KOTE) arts festival staged in the Corporate Area.

The event, which began last Friday, will run until next Sunday. It is scheduled to see approximately 25 events covering all areas of the arts including music, poetry, fine arts and dance.

Omar Francis, member of the organising team, told the Jamaica Observer this year’s theme is Renewal and, as such, a number of the events have this as part of their sub text.

He said the festival continues its thrust of unearthing and exposing some of the artistic jewels which exist in Kingston.

“Generally speaking, we just want to shed light on what happens in the city artisticaly. It is the largest of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean and we just want to show that some amazing things are happening which the general public and even artists themselves are not aware of.”

Shying away from fingering a must-see event, Francis said there is something for everyone in the schedule of events. Yesterday continued with a number of events including an exhibition featuring members of the Potters’ Association of Jamaica inside the lobby of the Bank of Jamaica in downtown Kingston. Among the potters showing were David Pinto, Margaret McGhie and Phillip Supersad.

Today, the events shift to the Liguanea Club in New Kingston for a short film festival where film enthusiast David Morrison will curate a night of ‘shorts’ highlighting the Jamaican film scene.

The monthly meeting of the Poetry Society of Jamaica is one of the events for June 25. This will be held at the Edna Manley College.

On Wednesday, it’s an informal forum based on photography at the Alhambra Inn.

Music comes to the fore on Thursday as one of the events on this date is an open Jam session at Tony’s Bar on Chelsea Avenue which promises to feature the avant garde of the Kingston music scene.

Musican Susan Couch and her big band will entertain on Friday, June 28, at the Redbones Blues Café.

Art is the feature of the penultimate day of the festival — Saturday, June 29. Artist Charl Baker leads an interactive mural painting at the School of Hope. Kenyan artist Mazola opens his studio allowing visitors to learn about his work and at the Grosvenor Gallery performance and art will co-mingle.

KOTE 2013 wraps up on Sunday, June 30 with five evnts including the National Gallery’s last Sunday, open house at Studio 74 and the the festival’s closing party — Kgn Dub Club.