Guam - A Guam delegation of 130 will be leaving for the Solomon Islands early Friday morning to represent Guam at the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts. According to chairperson Monica Guzman, the preview show this past Sunday was a success and helped bring down the costs for travel of the performers.

"A lot of the delegates, those who were able to sell tickets will be able to get some of their money back and they can use it for spending money," Guzman says. "Because the FESTPAC coordinating committee dropped the contribution from 750 to 500, that's another $250 that the delegates will have in their pockets, so they're real happy."

The delegation will be meeting up with an additional 17 delegates from Palau, who will join the charter flight before heading to the Solomon Islands. Guam meanwhile is also sending an eight-member shadow team to begin planning for the 2016 FESTPACT, which will be held on Guam for the first time. She adds a logo design, a theme and a website have already been developed but won't be launched until the event has started to not take focus away focus from the Solomon Islands.

She encourages island residents to support the Guam delegation by communicating or posting on the festpac facebook page that will provide updates and livestream of the event.