Pikinini Day or Pikinini festival will be a side show for the upcoming 67th Annual Goroka Show, which is set for the 15th to the 17th of September in Goroka, Eastern Highlands Province (EHP). Chairlady of the Goroka Show, Keryn Hargreaves said Friday 15th of September is the day the show intends to host the side show, where all the children are expected to get dressed in their traditional attires or “bilas,” to promote and understand their culture. She said children are the footprints into the future to preserving our culture. “This is because a lot of culture is dying away now and the way to put the headdresses or bilas or how to put everything on to a person has to be pass on to the younger generation to harness it and to take it onboard, protect it and continue into the future. Otherwise, if we don’t in the future, we will lose that fabric of where we come from or the sense of identity. Therefore, the aim of the Pikinini festival is all about advocating and educating our children on the significance of our cultures.” Mrs. Hargreaves hopes that the National Cultural Commission (NCC) will see the Pikinini Festival as an integral part of the event and will come onboard in the future to support the festival, through education or school programs, as culture is everyone’s business. “Culture, we live and breathe with it every day. We are Papua New Guineans, and it is part of us and it is very important that we all play are part in preserving and promoting our culture. And through the shows is one of the waysthat we come to see that culture is much alive in Papua New Guinea. This year Goroka show will feature 150 sing- sing groups from all the four regions of the country, all the way from Hela in the Highlands to Momase and Southern region.” She also thanked the NCC as the custodian for all cultural shows and festivals in the country, for their ongoing support towards the Goroka Show. NCC Executive Director Steven Enomb Kilanda when presenting funding of K20, 000 assistance, emphasized that cultural festivals and shows are the way in keeping the culture alive and encouraged greater participation from mini cultural festivals to provincial shows. He said the NCC was happy to lend their support to the Goroka Show, which is one of the longest running shows in the country. “We will continue to support Goroka Show and other shows in the country, but we urged those bigger shows to work in closely with the mini shows and festivals established in the rural and urban areas.” The National Gaming Control Board (NGCB) is the naming rights sponsor for this year’s 67th Goroka Show.