For the first time Bank of Baroda Labasa branch staff hosted a morning tea at their premises for the Vodafone Festival of the Friendly North contestants yesterday.

The north festival starts on Saturday and will round off on Saturday, August 26 with the crowning.

Branch manager Uday Singh said his staff members were happy to have the contestants over for the first time.

Apart from morning tea the contestants also received gifts compliments of the Labasa branch (Bank of Baroda).

“We wanted to reward them for what they are doing for Labasa, so we gave them each a gift,” Mr Singh said.

“The contestants have taken up a big challenge as during the festival hundreds of children and people flocking into Subrail Park will benefit from their motivational talks and fun filled engagements.”

Vodafone Festival of the Friendly North president Subhash Chandra said they had organised such engagements as a pre-launch to the festival.

The theme of the festival is ‘Healthy Environment and Healthy People’.

Mr Chandra said that they would be expecting to raise more than $200,000 during the weeklong festival.

“The construction of the multipurpose hall is a long term project and part of the money raised will be diverted to much needed small projects for the people of the North,” Mr Chandra said.

“One of the challenges that we are currently facing is that for a small town like Labasa it is not good to have many festivals at close intervals because it puts pressure on us when securing sponsorships,” he said.

“This year we have 11 queens and five kings and I would like to thank my committee members for making every effort to see that we have contestants this year.”

Early this month the weeklong Duavata Northern Crime Prevention Carnival concluded at Labasa.

Edited by Karalaini Waqanidrola

Feedback:  shratika.singh@fijisun.com.fj