At this year’s Decibel Entertainment Festival, one lucky young person will win the opportunity to fly to Los Angeles and spend two weeks at one of Hollywood’s best-known makeup schools.
Decibel founder Simon Baptiste made the announcement at Wednesday’s launch of this year’s event. Decibel Entertainment Festival aims to highlight the creative sector and to attract young people to consider pursuing a career in the entertainment industry. The event is centered principally on film, fashion, dance and music, and provides for an environment where up and coming creatives can learn about careers in entertainment, promote their talent and get guidance from industry professionals.
This year’s Decibel takes place May 5-7 at Queen’s Hall, Port-of-Spain—an increase from two to three days, to incorporate a Family Day.
Baptiste said Decibel has been modelled like a theme park, where there is something for all age agroups. He hopes the additional day will encourage more families to attend. The family day on May 7 will also incorporate cosplay, where participants adopt an alter ego and wear costumes to represent that specific character.
“We have decided to incorporate cosplay—probably the fastest growing art form—as a competition,” Baptiste said.
He noted that events like the entertainment convention Comic-Con have made cosplay very popular. Comic-Con usually features casts from shows like The Avengers, Star Trek and Game of Thrones and the fans pay homage by dressing up like their favourite characters.
Baptiste said on May 7, cosplay participants will be judged on the Decibel main stage and the winner will receive a two-week scholarship to Cinema Makeup School, one of Hollywood’s leading makeup and costuming training schools. The cosplay competition will be judged by representatives of Cinema Makeup School. While in LA, the winner of the Decibel cosplay competition will also visit the set of the television series American Horror Story.
Every year, Decibel attracts some entertainment celebrities. Last year, Canadian magician Darcy Oake came. This year, visitors include American choreographer Chris Scott (who worked on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and the 2006 American romantic dance film Step Up); actress Willow Shields (from the movie The Hunger Games); Jeremy Jordan (from Supergirl); WWE wrestler & reality TV star Nikki Bella; and hair artist Rob “The Original” Ferrell.
Decibel 2017 will also feature several local performers including Kes the Band who headlines the new Fandom Stage on May 6, and local magician Kess “The Illusionist” Rodriguez, who performs on all three nights.
Last year, Rodriguez opened for Canadian Darcy Oake but Baptiste believes it is time to give Rodriguez the spotlight.
“We need to stop looking at our local talent as secondary to foreigners because they are not. With opportunity they can be far better than any international entertainer,” Baptiste said.
Regular Decibel attractions like the bmobile Zombie Island, Escape Room, Captain T&T and the RBL hardcore will be featured at Decibel 2017.