THE RAMSI Secretariat in the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet announces that a Panpipe Festival will coincide with the RAMSI farewell celebrations at the end of June.

Panpipe performers will take part in the Traditional Welcome and Thanksgiving Ceremony at Town Ground Stadium on Wednesday 28the June, which will be open to the public to attend.

The welcome ceremony is dubbed ‘the Chiefs traditional welcome’ because it will involve traditional chiefs and landowners who will welcome RAMSI dignitaries to our country.

This major event is being spearheaded by the Culture Department in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Heading the planning team is Mr Dennis Marita, Director of Culture in the Ministry. He says, “The national Panpipe festival will engage cultural groups from all the Provinces.

“Apart from the normal contemporary panpipe we will also be bringing in panpipes from regions that have not attended before.”

“We’ll be seeing some traditional pipes from Shortland Islands, Choiseul, Isabel, Guadalcanal, Makira and Malaita.”

“We are hosting the panpipe festival to showcase some of the unique panpipes we’ve never seen or heard before; that will definitely bring a unique cultural flavour to the Welcome ceremony”.

“There will be exchanges of traditional and souvenir gifts and traditional items and speeches from both sides at which will be represented by our custom chief”.

The RAMSI farewell celebrations take place from 25^th until 29th June across Honiara with some events to be broadcast on SIBC.