Barbados National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA)

Each year Barbados celebrates its Independence on November 30 and attracts Barbadians of all ages to showcase their talent. One of the main events is the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA), which is organized by the National Cultural Foundation. The festival runs throughout the month of November and the seven disciplines of NIFCA are - Dance, Drama/Speech, Music, Literary Arts, Culinary Arts, Visual Arts and Craft and Photography.

The month is filled with many performances, art exhibitions, demonstrations etc and closes with a grand finale with a gala presentation in which the finalists are featured.

The grand finale saw 18 hand picked acts perform for the Cable & Wireless NIFCA performing arts gala ceremony, where Dancing Africa collected the gold award.

Two new awards were created this year, the first in memory of Wendell Smith where a trophy was awarded for the Best Directed Piece and the second in memory of Alfred Pragnell, which is a scholarship for acting called The Alfred Pragnell Challenge Shield for acting.