Every two years, CARICOM and CARIFORUM countries of the Caribbean and Latin America gather to celebrate the spirit of their people through the expressions of Art, Music, Food, Folklore, Theatre and Dance at the Caribbean Festival of Arts known as CARIFESTA. In 2017, Barbados hosted the 13th edition of this exciting Festival with participation by over four thousand artists, artistes and artisans under the theme “Asserting Our Culture, Celebrating Ourselves”.

In keeping with the theme of CARIFESTA XIII EKCO Nation presented the Fringe festival and Music Conference: “Caribbean EKCO: One People, One Sound” from August 17th – 27th 2017 . The inaugural festival, featuring activities staged over several days, included a series of concerts, a Prison Outreach event, seminars and workshops, daily radio shows, web and social media promotion for participating artistes, as well as an exhibition booth in the CARIFESTA XIII Marketplace to promote their albums and merchandise.

Caribbean EKCO was the only promotional and developmental program within CARIFESTA that is specifically targeting Christian Artistes, musicians, spoken word artists, DJs, vocalists, bands and songwriters. In 2017 the festival welcomed 23 performing artistes from six Caribbean nations including Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, St. Maarten, British Virgin Islands and Barbados.