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Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Beyond the live Belizean performances on the Cultural Pavilion Stage, other aspects of Belize's identity were also on display. There were arts and craft creators, drum makers and others – all set up to represent the diversity of Belize's culture.  

Big Falls Village artist Marta Chiac was one of those cultural demonstrators. Chiac brought a bunch of her hand weaved Jipijapa baskets and everyone loved them.  

Marta Chiac, Basket Weaver
"So far this is my second day at the New Orleans Jazz Festival, I am so excited and yesterday was a little hectic day for me it's because of too much crowd, here is a lot of people and people are just crazy for my stuff out here, the basket that I am weaving they fall for it yesterday, yesterday people were grabbing it like crazy."  

So much so that she was sold out on the first day of the festival  

Marta Chiac, Basket Weaver
"All of my baskets that I brought just to display at this Jazz Festival, everything was sold yesterday and plenty of the people making their orders so this is what I am weaving for them because they will be picking it up later this evening at the end of the day."  

And carver Elmer Panti had that same luck with the festival goers – he too sold out and is ecstatic to showcase his Mayan slate carvings.

Elmer Panti, Carver
"What I have right now here is the Mayan Calendar, you can see the calendar, some faces like toucans – our national bird and I have some other ones there. The process is right here the raw slate, I use this one here then shape it with machete and here is my tools."

"I am happy to be here and happy to promote my arts."  

And from Maya basket weavers and carvers, to ketchi Maya harpists.  

Hilario Mes, Harpist
"We came here to demonstrate actually how to make the instruments – the violin, the guitar and the harp. We brought it into pieces and we set it up here and we have some that we are still making and during the course of this festival we will be making more and hoping we can finish them."  

But Mes probably won't finish in time because the harp itself takes about a month to complete.  

    Hilario Mes, Harpist
"The harp is about 30 days, it takes about 30 days and the violin it takes about 6 days and the guitar it takes about 5 days if you work permanent right through."  

And they will keep on working with just their hand tools - to the burning of their sacred incense.  

And just like that, the cassava makers will be working all day near the heat of their "fiya-hawth."  

Desiree Diego, Cassava Bread Maker
"I am very proud to be here in New Orleans demonstrating the making of the cassava bread because that is our roots from Belize as Garinagu, you know that is our main food, besides the Hudut and Darasa and whatever else, we do the baking of the cassava bread."  

"Everybody want to know, everybody want to get a taste so by the time we cut up one and put it there by the time you look around it is all gone, so we get the little peanut butter so we tell them they can add a little peanut butter to it and so they eat that, the it love it too."  

Steven Carriur, Louisiana
"I watched over here and I thought it was cool Ya'll little set up over here and I saw what the lady was doing and my group of friends we all wanted to try it and it's really good."  

And there was another food display under the Cultural Pavilion tent – but there were no samples to give away and that's because the food was set for the Finados feast - an offering to the souls of our departed Belizean artists.  

Natividad Obando, Branch Mouth, Cayo "We have great icons that have passed away like Andy Palacio, Paul Nabor, Mr. Peters, we have Mr. Morales who was a famous Marimbero and 2 of my brothers they are joining the team – Leonardo and John , we have chosen the Mestizo culture because that is where our roots are but we are celebrating the total culture of Belize."  

Rose Obando, Finados Food Preparation
"Some of the foods are like the bollos, corn tortilla, the escabeche, the black dinner, the Maja Blanca, Ix-pacha , and the fruits , if you look on the altar you won't see apple and grape but you will see the tropical fruit because that was what our ancestors love."  

While food is an integral part of celebrating the ancestors in the Mestizo culture, the African ancestors celebrated with drums and Wilford Felix brought that elemental sound from the Belize City bridgefoot to the Jazzfest:    

      Wilford Felix, Drummer
"We are developing a movement with the Garifuna people so we can build a unity between the Creole people and Garifuna people so that is why we have the sambai drums which are the creole drums and  the Garifuna drums on display."  

And that same thumping backbeat is also a big part of the Carnival – David Matus says it has been both a teaching and a learning experience:  

  David Matus, Costume Designer – Titans
"This specific booth under the Belize pavilion has become like a photo booth, everybody wants to wear the pieces, everybody wants to know about the carnival, we have exchange details with people who do carnival here because the carnival here is different."  

And that cross cultural exchange is what the Jazz Festival is all about.

And we've still got a couple more jazzfest features in the bag, so stay tuned to 7News in the coming days to see those.