Crop Over Folk Concert in Golden Square tonight

Festival lovers seeking an awesome event that showcases exactly why Crop Over 2022 is much more than a carnival, are invited to Golden Square Freedom Park, The City, this evening.

That is where the Courts ICBL Crop Over Folk Concert and Day of National Significance Commemorative Ceremony will be staged on July 26, starting at 6 p.m.

The concert will spotlight Barbados’ ascension under the theme: “Riots to Republic” and takes place in the centre of Bridgetown where masses of poor Barbadians sought redress for their social and economic conditions, and from which, National Hero Clement Payne emerged.

The National Cultural Foundation (NCF) is promising the free concert will be an inspiring, eclectic mix of traditional folk music and story-telling performances, infusing various music genres.

Artistes including a 100-voice choir, The Most Honourable Anthony Gabby Carter, Stiffy, Anderson “Blood” Armstrong, Sunrokk, BoBo, Rubytech, Alison Norville, Kareem Agard, recently-crowned Junior Monarch Yahandje, and Israel Lovell Drummers will grace the stage.

At the same time, the event will also pay tribute to the revolutionaries of the 1937 uprising that paved the way for Barbados’ independence and its transition to a parliamentary republic last year.

Carol Roberts-Reifer, chief executive officer of the NCF, who conceptualised this year’s event, said the cultural development agency could not diminish the importance of the folk concert to the Crop Over calendar despite the shortened version of events this year.

As the island celebrates the 85th anniversary of the historic riots, the NCF chief explained the folk concert will be divided into two components.

Roberts-Reifer said the first will be an “important and impactful” ceremony commemorating the events of 1937 that propelled Barbados into a modern independent society, through to the historic transition at which the British monarch was removed as sovereign.

The concert’s cast, she praised, represented “a wonderful blend of veterans and young talent” with a repertoire of beautiful folk songs. These include traditional pieces,
unique takes on well-known melodies, as well as newly unearthed talents.

The CEO hailed musical director Ryan Boyce and co-producer Kelly-Anne Gaskin, under whose creative guidance the event will be staged.

“We are going to be presenting an evening not only of nostalgia. . . but an appreciation of great Barbadian talent,” the NCF chief executive promised.

She added: “We will be in Golden Square, which comes with all of the history and poignancy of the commemoration of that day.” (PR)