BRIDGETOWN, June 9, 1999 - Barbados will be bustling with cultural activities from June 27through August 2, when it celebrates the annual Crop Over Festival, the Island's most colorful event of the year. Visitors can join in during the five-week festival and enjoy exciting cultural festivities daily, with major events in the final week.
Crop Over '99 will be a time for Barbados to commemorate some of its most important historical milestones. Dating back to the eighteenth century, Crop Over historically marked the final reaping of the season's sugar cane harvest and is one of the oldest festivals in the Caribbean region. On completion of the harvest, Barbadian slaves channeled their energy into dancing, feasting and parading mule-drawn carts across the sugar plantations. In the 1940s, when the Barbadian sugar industry declined, the festival ceased. The tradition was revived in 1974 when Barbados reintroduced Crop Over and infused it with a new energy and spirit to celebrate the rich cultural traditions of this island nation. Today, Crop Over captures all the flavors of Barbados, with five weeks of parades, parties, craft markets, food festivals, concerts and other activities.
Crop Over Gala
Crop Over '99 will be formally launched on July 3 at the Crop Over Gala with the Decorated Cart and Float Parade, as well as a symbolic presentation of the last reaped sugar canes. The parade once exclusively featured donkey carts, while today it includes a great variety of vehicles from vintage cars to brightly decorated bicycles, vans and trucks. The processions are accompanied by indigenous Barbadian music, including calypso, Tuk bands and other local performance art. At the end of the parade route, an opening ceremony re-enacts the Delivery of the Last Canes - a symbolic link to the tradition of the original Crop Over Festival.
Fine Craft Exhibition and FestivalVisitors are invited to enjoy an arts and crafts fair held every Saturday between July 3 - July 24. The fair precedes the Fine Craft Exhibition, where local Bajan artists gather at the colorful setting of Queen's Park Gallery to exhibit their works. Shoppers may later purchase items at the Craft Market. The exhibition will be open to visitors from July 10 - August 2. Also scheduled is a three-day fine art and photography exhibition from June 27 – July 30 in the Grande Salle.
Bajan Culture Village
The centerpiece of Crop Over is the Bajan Culture Village, at King George V Memorial Park on July 17. The village features replicas of the island's signature chattel houses (colorful, transportable homes from the plantation era), crafts and food markets, and an assortment of typical Barbadian village games.
Folk and Gospel Music
Folk and gospel concerts held in recognition of the island's cultural and social development trace the history and evolution of "going to market." Performances will be held July 27 and 28 at the Sherbourne Conference Centre, Bridgetown.
Calypso Competitions
The Pic-O-De-Crop Calypso Competition, an integral part of Crop Over, brings together calypso hopefuls who will perform their best songs on July 25 at East Coast Road. On Friday, July 30, at the National Stadium, finalists will vie for the title of "Calypso Monarch" at the Pic-O-De-Crop Finals.
Bridgetown Market
On July 31, the Bridgetown Market will feature Bajan cuisine, indigenous arts and crafts, a steel band festival and a Tuk band competition. Tuk, an indigenous music form, features comically dressed minstrels playing a trio of rhythm instruments. Their repertoire begins with a slow
waltz, shifts into a marching tune influenced by British military percussion and concludes with a frenzied African beat. The diversity of the Tuk bands' music is a vivid example of the amalgam of historical influences in Barbados.Grand Kadooment
The grand finale of the Crop Over Festival is Grand Kadooment on August 2, a pageant where locals form groups representing themes of Barbadian life and dress in colorful masks and wild costumes before judges and spectators in the National Stadium. Local children host their own Junior Kadooment, held on Saturday, July 24, when they present the costumes and masks they have prepared over the year. Visitors can participate directly in Kadooment by joining one of the lively costume groups. After the parade, the celebration takes to the streets as spectators are invited to dance to the pulsating rhythms of the festival's best calypso and soca music. A spectacular firework display signals the end of the biggest party of the year, as well as the close of the five-week festival. For more information, contact the National Cultural Foundation at (246) 424-0907.
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