THE CREATIVITY of local floral artists, along with that of international flower arrangers, will be on display next year when the island plays host to the World Association of Floral Artists (WAFA) for its big show Flowers In Paradise.
Maurice Webster, president of the Barbados Association of Floral Artists (BAFA), explained that 500 competitors, from the 31 member countries of WAFA, will take over the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre from June 18 to 25.
Webster, who is also president of WAFA for 2014-2017, said the week-long event would be a full package of activities. He added BAFA was working with a number of entities, like the Barbados Investment and Development Corporation and Barbados Tourism Product Authority, to pull it off. They were “advanced in all our planning and preparation”.
“We are in the process of getting all the classes organised, the categories organised so we can start receiving entries for the various classes,” he said.
“We expect it to be quite a Caribbean spectacle in that we are involving our friends from the Caribbean as well, in what we call international demonstrations, in that we are involving people from the Caribbean and people from the UK,” Webster said.
He revealed each Caribbean island would be putting up a special display which highlighted its flora and fauna.
“So that is going to be an added attraction to the whole weekend.”
Webster said the island’s tropical blooms and those of its neighbours were well known and loved throughout the world.
The floral artists have been holding their own in international competitions. Some of BAFA’s members recently exhibited their work at the Barbados Horticultural Society’s annual Flower And Garden Show at Balls Plantation, Christ Church.
“Barbados is known from that area and we have quite a few members of that club who have exhibited both at Chelsea (Flower Show) in their individual capacity and at other world shows. We have,won prizes and people know Barbados and Barbados’ floral artists,” he said.
“And the mere fact we are hosting it in this area (the Caribbean), people are attracted to it because it is in the Caribbean so that we want to make it a big show,” Webster told Heather-Lynn’s Habitat. He said that one of the island’s major drawing cards was that people were “looking for something tropical”.
heatherlynevanson@nationnews.com
