by David Hinkson
Bandleaders participating in this year’s Crop Over Festival are optimistic that both Foreday Morning and Grand Kadooment will go smoothly despite the challenges of operating in a COVID-19 environment.
Veteran masquerader Betty West, who has been involved in the festival for the last 31 years, said she was expecting a “spectacular” event on the first Monday in August, despite fewer revellers.
“It’s true our numbers are down, and that is not only because of the new route but with a lot of people out of work since COVID we knew that getting our regular numbers would have been a challenge,” she said, speaking on the sidelines of the Festival of Bands event last evening at Ball Park, Christ Church.
“However, the challenge for me is fine, because it makes me want to do whatever I can to make this the best spectacle ever given all we have faced.”
West added: “I have been involved in this event for a long time and I have seen all kinds of changes, but once we stick together this will be a successful festival.”
Chetwyn Stewart of Power X 4, who made the decision to bring a band “late in the game”, said he was already planning for next year’s festival.
“We are only now launching because it took so long to remove the COVID protocols, so because of that we won’t have our usual overseas contingent. Our theme this year is WETT – World Entertainment Transformation Training and we are doing it for our local participants, but we are also launching our 2023 band, Dream Barbados, and planning to come bigger and better next year,” he disclosed.
Stewart said he believed the decision to abandon the plan to have Foreday Morning on two routes in the southeast of the island and return it to its traditional BTI car park to Mighty Grynner Highway route, will attract more revellers.
“I believe more people will come in now since the Foreday bands preferred the Bridgetown route,” he said.
Jason Thompson said he had already seen a significant increase in registrations for his Foreday Morning band Hijack since the change was announced over the weekend.
“I’m ecstatic and glad to be back in Bridgetown. From the time the change was announced we went on our social media pages and saw our numbers increasing. We were willing to work with the new routes owing to the COVID protocols, but since they got relaxed we wanted to see the old route return, so I’m glad that has happened,” he said.
Meantime, Gail McAllister of Passion Vybez sees this year’s festival as a “trial run”.
“Usually registration is slow, and this year it is indeed slower than normal, and I believe that is because of the economic hardships coming out of COVID, but I hope the numbers will increase later on. I am all for the new Kadooment route, because to me this year is about trial and testing, it’s a new environment, so I guess we will just have to see how it goes and consider it a trial run for 2023,” she said.
Meantime, Thompson said he is also looking forward to the new Grand Kadooment route along the ABC Highway as opposed to the old route from the National Stadium to the Mighty Grynner Highway.
“I always had issues along the old route, particularly with ‘stormers’ trying to invade the band, so I think it’s great that we can be on this part of the highway where we won’t have that problem,” he said.
“I think it will be a blast, particularly based on what I have been hearing about the plans the National Cultural Foundation has, such as performances along the route and water stops. So it may very well be that after this year people will want to stick to the ABC Highway.” (DH)
