by GERCINE CARTER

AT A NIFCA gala where music dominated the acts, there was confirmation of the wide reach of the annual creative arts festival with The Governor General's Award of Excellence going to the culinary and visual arts on Sunday night.

Hundreds braved rain to be at the Garfield Sobers Complex to experience the cream of this year's talent, presented in 19 acts of music, drama and dance.

A near to capacity audience applauded as the most coveted prize of all was presented by Governor-General Sir Clifford Husbands to Michelle Maloney and Gloria Chung.

Maloney, executive chef at the Bagatelle Great House, has been a winner at several previous NIFCA competitions, and this year she finally copped the big ones, gold and the Governor General's Award Of Excellence for her – pan-seared beef with golden apple-glazed shrimp, sweet potato discs, and yam balls with brown sauce and plantain.

Ceramic sculptor, tutor, jeweller and textile artist Gloria Chung also won gold for her ceremic entry We too love Barbados in the Fine Craft competition and walked off with the other Governor General's Award Of Excellence.

On this anniversary, Dr Jean Holder and Dr Cynthia Wilson were honoured with 35th Anniversary NIFCA Stalwart Awards for their initial vision and that of others like Jeanette Layne-Clarke and the late Arden Clarke which led to the creation of the first NIFCA.

Sunday night's programme opened with a tribute to the Barbados Landship and Lord High Admiral Vernon Watson and his crew joined dancers on stage at times conducting and participating in the "manouvres'.

This opening act set the stage. Sixteen-year-old Broderic Goodfellow, took the audience on a musical flight with his violin selection Air On A G String, while Dancin Africa brought them back to earth and reality, with a moving interpretation of the painful reality of child abuse, in their dance Broken Dolls.

Lyrical Poet Adrian Green evoked laughter, but laughter clearly born out of embarrassment over the contradiction in societal mores which Green highlighted in his lengthy piece entitled Hardears Yuh Won't Hear.

It must have been a difficult task for those responsible for selecting the talent for the gala night, as performances like that by the All Saints Primary School We Ain't Cooking No More; the self-penned and arranged piece David Danced Before the Lord, played on violin and guitar by brothers Aaron and Leandro Layne; and 14-year-old kareem Agard's piercing rendition of The Greatest Love of All, each left the audience hankering for more.

But the gala spotlight was undoubtedly stolen by the youngest performer in this year's NIFCA, Rickardo Reid. In the penultimate performance of the night, the pint-sized, giant-voiced, eight-year-old brought the house down.

As they walked out of the Gymnasium, patrons were overheard repeating the refrain from Reid's hilarious recitation; I Getting Ready Fuh De World Cup . . . Den.