Quadfest

Quadfest was the brain child of Caroline Muraldo, who on realizing that there were a number of community groups practicing and performing Quadrille in isolation, the vast majority of whom are Caribbean elders Caroline thought it would be a good idea to encourage these groups to come together in an annual festival, which would also be a platform for Caribbean quadrilles and traditional Caribbean dance as a whole. In considering such a venture she realized that such an event could be the source of wide ranging benefits not only to the Caribbean community but also to the community at large.

 

For people born in this country of Caribbean heritage there is little information taught in schools about the richness of Caribbean culture and currently the only renowned Caribbean event is the Notting Hill Carnival, which has developed its own identity as a Black-British event, quite distinct from the carnivals held in the Caribbean. Quadfest provides one opportunity to for people of Caribbean descent to witness, take part in and learn about aspects of Caribbean folk forms in a most enjoyable and exciting way.

 

The Festival began as a pilot on the 21st of November 1998 held at The Priory Community Centre, Acton, with a small local borough grant of £500. This first Quadfest mainly consisted of the Quadrille competition between three community quadrille groups alongside performances of other forms of traditional Caribbean dance, folk singing and storytelling by professional artists.

The community groups taking part were:
DONA - Dominican Quadrille group- based in Acton
The Lucianite Dancers – based in Hackney
Hibiscus Quadrille Troupe – based in Stratford

 

The groups were judged by dance practitioners who are specialists who their own area of dance: -

 

Anne Daye	European Historical Dance (currently lecturer at Middlesex University)
Jackie Guy	Traditional Caribbean and Contemporary dance (Ex- Artistic director Kokuma Dance Theatre and course co-ordinator of the first traditional Black Dance course)
Raymond McClean	Traditional Caribbean and Contemporary (Dance tutor at Danceworks, Covent Garden)
H Pattern	Traditional African and Caribbean dance (Ex-member of Adzido Pan- African ensemble, performer teacher and choreographer)

 

Approximately 150 people representing a range of ethnic backgrounds, and traveling from all over London and beyond attended the event, which included performances from semi-professional and professional artists. On that day much positive feedback has been received from both the competitors and the general audience.

 

The weekend of the 16th & 17th October '99 saw the second annual Quadfest event but the first Quadfest weekend. Developing on from the previous year, a day of Quadrille workshops was added to the competition evening as enjoyed last year. That year however the actual competition did not take place as planned due to one of the competing quadrille groups not being able to attend at the last moment. Nevertheless a brilliant evening of traditional Caribbean entertainment was staged celebrating the richness of Caribbean folk forms with special emphasis on traditional Caribbean dance.

 

The third annual Quadfest event and the second Quadfest weekend! The festival was enhanced by the addition of Junior Quadfest, planned especially for the participation of children both as audience and performers which was to take place on the Friday 27th October but due to the late arrival of Millennium funding it had to be postponed until Friday 24th November.

 

Quadfest ’00 took place in the wake of the Paddington train crash resulting in weeks of chaos on British rail and traffic jams everywhere. The weather at this time was also not encouraging as it was a weekend of non-stop torrential rain even Ascot was rained off). Nevertheless Quadfest ’00 went ahead and people managed to make though all these difficulties. The size of the audience was considerably lower than previous years due to these circumstances but the feedback was highly encouraging as always, many stating that the event was well worth the struggle of getting there!

 

Due to the problems around getting funding within a reasonable time from Ealing Council, and booking problems at The Priory compounded by the fact that to get to The Priory one must rely on British Rail only, as the underground station is some distance away, we have decided to change venue from this year, ideally the Commonwealth Institute which has higher prestige and is much more central. We have also decided to take Quadfest out of Black History Month, as the competition with other black events does not make sense.

 

On Saturday the 8th December ’01 the fourth annual Quadfest was held and what a day that was! The festival was almost not held due to the heavy workload of Muraldo D.C.’s other commitments, we did consider possibly missing a year. We did however have a number of enquiries asking for the date for Quadfest ’01 it was clear that such a decision would have brought much disappointment. However although we decided not to hold Junior Quadfest this year, but thanks to the financial help of London Arts who funded this year’s event the main festival went ahead, much to the delight of those who attended.

 

Due to this later than normal decision to still go ahead we were unfortunately able to have the presence of two Quadfest competition regulars our reigning champions D.O.N.A and The Lucianite Dancers.

 

We had intended to book the Commonwealth Institute for Quadfest ’01 however as that venue no longer promotes the Caribbean and is very expensive, it was decided to look elsewhere. We also considered Kensington and Chelsea town halls, which both had good potential, but neither were available for the weekend required. We eventually settled on The Round Chapel, Clapton resulting in not only a change of venue, and a change of area moving across London from Ealing to East London. The venue an beautiful church building currently being refurbished as an arts centre with a large round central hall perfect for the presentation of Quadfest. The only down side was the lack of heating. Unfortunately at the time of Quadfest many for the centre’s heaters were broken and while the venue managers were confident that they could overcome this problem it was definitely hat, coats and gloves on with lots of hot drinks! Nevertheless the audience were wonderful, hardly complaining, they just got on with enjoying all that was on offer and had a brilliant time!

(Full reports are available for each year)

 

Quadfest helps to underline the value of traditional dance and music while restoring and strengthening a sense of community as an inter-generational event. It promotes a greater sense of multi-cultural awareness and respect for different cultures, arising from a deeper understanding of how many different cultures are cross-influenced by cultures for other continents, as embodied within the Caribbean Quadrille tradition.

 

The audiences attending this festival are being treated to an experience that they will not have anywhere else in this country nor are we aware that there has been a festival of this kind in England before.