KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

QRC Fete Roy­al will be cel­e­brat­ing its 10th an­niver­sary in style, adding Machel Mon­tano to its line-up.

Un­der the theme Lega­cy, the event promis­es pa­trons an un­for­get­table ex­pe­ri­ence with spe­cial em­pha­sis be­ing placed on the ex­pe­ri­ence of women. PTA pres­i­dent Asha Clax­ton said the event will take place at the his­toric and scenic QRC Grounds in Port-of-Spain on Feb­ru­ary 15.

“Fete Roy­al 10: Lega­cy will en­sure our women are not on­ly wel­comed in roy­al­ty but al­so giv­en a space to be pam­pered like roy­al­ty through­out the evening,” said Clax­ton.

“In that man­ner, we have part­nered with John Frei­da and some of the great­est brands to of­fer the most lux­u­ri­ous of drink and dessert op­tions for, yes, all of our pa­trons, but more so for our ladies.”

Clax­ton, who as­sumed the PTA pres­i­dent po­si­tion in No­vem­ber 2024, is heav­i­ly in­volved in the QRC Fete Roy­al 10: Lega­cy. She was al­so in­volved in the plan­ning and mar­ket­ing of last year’s event.

“As the PTA pres­i­dent, I serve not on­ly to pro­vide guid­ance along­side the Old Boys’ As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent and the prin­ci­pal but al­so serve on the Main Fete Com­mit­tee and the Mar­ket­ing Com­mit­tee,” she said.

“Like­wise, like my­self, be­cause the fete is or­gan­ised by vol­un­teers that are from our Q-mmu­ni­ty, every area is nice­ly bal­anced with both males and fe­males. And what makes it even nicer is that we have stal­warts who are fe­males that have been re­spon­si­ble for in­fra­struc­ture and lay­out for years ... tru­ly a fete with a woman’s touch.

“As Roy­alians, both young and mem­bers of the OBA, it’s im­por­tant not on­ly to salute and pay trib­ute to our women but al­so to in­clude them. And this goes in every area of our beloved col­lege. Hav­ing their opin­ion, giv­ing an op­por­tu­ni­ty for them to con­tribute, and most im­por­tant­ly, teach­ing our young men to re­spect and pro­tect our women is a first place among many through­out the cul­ture of the col­lege.”

Fete Roy­al is more than just an event, ac­cord­ing to Clax­ton. “This is an in­vest­ment in­to what is our present lega­cy and soon to be our fu­ture,” she added.

“Our Roy­alians un­der­stand the val­ue of the women that share the space with them and among them, and it is some­thing they take very se­ri­ous­ly. For Fete Roy­al 10–Lega­cy, you can ex­pect noth­ing less than queen­dom be­cause as queens, we worked tire­less­ly and du­ti­ful­ly to en­sure that the ex­pe­ri­ence we would want to en­joy as women is what will be cre­at­ed on Feb­ru­ary 15.”

The col­lege and the Old Boys’ As­so­ci­a­tion are al­so thank­ing loy­al pa­trons and spon­sors whose sup­port over the years has fu­elled trans­for­ma­tive projects at QRC.

“Funds are ear­marked to com­plete the QRC Sci­ence Block this year,” she said.

“Over the years we have done ma­jor works in this area, and so we con­tin­ue to­wards com­ple­tion of the same.”

Pro­ceeds from pre­vi­ous events have been in­vest­ed in a wide range of up­grades and ini­tia­tives, in­clud­ing:

• Grass pavers on the north lawn in 2020;

• Perime­ter and class­room LED light­ing in 2023/2024;

• Sci­ence labs up­grade/mod­erni­sa­tion, with funds al­lo­cat­ed for up­grad­ing the sci­ence block lec­ture room;

• Fence re­pairs in 2024;

• Sig­nif­i­cant in­vest­ments have been made in Blue Ra­dio, the on­ly sec­ondary school-ded­i­cat­ed ra­dio sta­tion, set to be in­tro­duced in the first quar­ter of 2025.

Fete Roy­al 2025 will fea­ture a top-notch per­for­mance line-up with Machel Mon­tano, Kes The Band, Dil-E-Nadan, Mi­cal Te­ja, Yung Bred­da, and Asy­lum Vikings with Bun­ji Gar­lin and Fay-Ann Lyons.