US stars for Decibel Festival

The festival a the Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s will comprise workshops, seminars, conferences, exhibitions and performances.

Produced by Question Mark Entertainment (QME), this event combines education with the creative arts to facilitate the mindful exploration of career options in the creative industry.

On the cusp of the third edition of its second incarnation, it must be noted that the Decibel project has contributed significantly to the development of the creative sector and the evolution of the entertainment industry for well over a decade, said a media release.

“It used to be very frustrating to see how much talent there was in Trinidad and Tobago,” QME director Carolyn Pasea said in the release, “because as fast as we would recognise genuine talent and see these individuals blessed with creative gifts, it was sad to also realise at that time – which was just after the start of the new millennium – that there were very few avenues or opportunities available for this talent to grow and flourish into sustainable careers. So, we came up with Decibel in order to create a path through which our talents can be identified and encouraged and evolved into suitable careers.” “There are many different components and careers which have to work together to form a self-sustaining industry,” added director, Simon Baptiste, “Along the way, therefore, we realised we couldn’t just help one or two talented people to pursue their creative dreams – we needed to create something that would impact on hundreds and thousands of people in order to effect positive change over time– and of course, those young impressionable minds attached to young bodies full of energy and drive and passion have always been the target and the best demographic to get involved in the creative process…” Since its inception, Decibel has attracted and impressed the young citizens of T&T with big stars such as: Adam Sevani, Pretty Little Liars’ actress, Torrey DeVitto, Joel Kinnaman from the film, Suicide Squad; Serayah McNeill from the hit show Empire, Actress, Carmen Electra and Transformers’ star, Shia Le Bouf among others.

Simultaneously, Decibel has grown and evolved from an important annual conference to a massive multi-faceted festival.

Secondary school students are already registered to attend and will be exposed to the vast assortment of career options and opportunities available in the entertainment industry. That does not mean that parents and adults will be required to wait in the car or just drop and pick-up their children during the festival at all.

A variety of engaging attractions suitable for all ages will be available for perusal and exploration throughout the duration of the three-day conference.

The attractions include nightly performances from Kess The Illusionist, a culinary explosion in the Decibel Food Court, the bmobile Zombie Island and Escape Room, Fandom segments – where the stars will interact directly with their fans, the Hit The Floor dance competition, Gamers Republic and Captain T&T.

The Republic Bank Decibel Entertainment Festival also includes a ground-breaking Cosplay competition with a lucrative grand prize for the eventual winner. Cosplay is a performance art in which participants (called cosplayers) create and wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character – usually from a film, book or video game.

Following the Decibel Cosplay competition, one lucky and talented Cosplay winner will earn the grand prize of a scholarship visit to the Cinema Makeup School (CMS) in Los Angeles, California from July 30 to August 11 with airfare and accommodation included.

“Saturday is the day that everyone usually focuses on because that’s the day when the big stars like Kes The Band perform but we have added Sunday as a day for families to come out and included Cosplay and the Cosplay competition because it’s one of the largest growing art-forms in the world, Baptiste said. We are touting it as the biggest Cosplay prize because we joined forces with the biggest institution that actually signs off on Cosplay characters, which is the Cinema Makeup School.

Their reps will also judge the competition…” The anticipation for this event was also fuelled by the Malta Decibel School Tour, which visited many educational institutions.

A special surprise guest – Will Smith – was only just announced online on Friday and there may be a few surprises still to come.

For more info: Decibel Expo Facebook Page or www.decibelexpo.

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