Sadly

true!

“Will there be an Arts Festival?” was the question posed on our cover for the November issue.

The sad answer came on November 26 when a spokesman for the newly-elected Government Council announced that the festival had been “postponed to a date to be fixed.”

Reasons given were that due to roadblocks and possible other impediments “the movements of visitors outside Noumea would be restricted.”

The announcement was a bitter blow to the many people in the Pacific -- and throughout the world, for that matter - who had planned to be in New Caledonia from December 8-22 to participate in, or to observe, the big quadrennial event which the Festival of Pacific Arts has become.