Bermuda's cultural roots were celebrated yesterday at an event featuring the Island's famous folk dancers.

The Gombey Festival 2007 saw crowds of spectators fill the car park of City Hall in Hamilton to watch energetic performances from eight local Gombey troupes.

There was also entertainment from stilted moko jumbie dancers from St. Kitts. Footage of the colourful carnival can be seen in a video report at www.theroyalgazette.com.

Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Wayne Perinchief told the audience that the annual festival was aimed at honouring an important Bermudian tradition, whose history is linked with the slaves who came here from Africa and the Island's Caribbean connections.

"Gombey music runs deep in our roots and through the centuries its rhythms flowed through our lives from the natives of Africa, the Caribbean, North and South America, richly blending with the rhythms of other cultures, giving us today a music to be treasured," he said.

Master of ceremonies Gary Phillips told the audience that the sound of the gombey drums was the music that "hits the soul and gets the feet moving".

He was paying tribute to Henry Grother Wilson, an 83-year-old gombey drummer, who picked up an award yesterday for being a "master gombey music maker par excellence".

Mr. Wilson, who still performs, began his gombey career at the age of 13 and went on to form the Wilson Gombey troupe with his brother Alfred and Sidney "Coco" Stevens.

Their talent saw them perform at Bermuda's famed Gombey Room and at the Waldorf Astoria in New York and other prestigious US hotels.

Adrian Kawaley-Lathan, a consultant to the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs, said yesterday's performances by H&H, Richardson, Roots, Places, Alisa Kani, K&K, Warner and Warwick troupes showed that the gombey tradition was thriving.

He said a film about local troupes was due to be finished in December this year and would be shown at next year's international film festival.