Bandleaders investing the future of Crop Over

Several bandleaders are putting plans in place to ensure that Grand Kadooment continues to grow long after they put down their tools.
Speaking to Barbados TODAY during Flow 5G+ Grand Kadooment, Haus of Mas bandleader Kathy-Ann Scott said while the industry has become more challenging over the years, it has also created an opportunity to refocus on building local capacity.

Haus of Mas Kathy-Ann Scott outlined that young persons were being trained in costume making. (Photo credit: Jenique Belgrave/ Barbados TODAY)

Scott, who has been involved in the business for 11 years, said her band made youth development a priority this year by training teenagers in the traditional skills needed to produce Crop Over costumes.

“Every piece of costume on display here today was made in Barbados by local artisans and then we have some 15 and 16 year olds that we were training in the art of feathering and costume demming and so on,” she said. 

“So the hope is that it comes back to Barbados and that we can create an industry out of it here because this is we ting and if we keep exporting it, we lose the art of costume making and the actual art of masquerade. I find that if people are involved in creating something then they have an ownership of it and are more willing to participate from that end.”

With over 35 years under her belt, well-known veteran bandleader Betty West who indicated last year that this would be her final masquerade, has decided not to leave the craft which she has honed for so many years without others to take it up.

Veteran bandleader Betty West says she is training others in the craft. (Photo credit: Jenique Belgrave/ Barbados TODAY)

“I said this year would be my last year but it’s not. I actually have some young people I am training so I will be here for two more years,” she said. 

Wirebender, Henderson Jones, who has over three decades of experience in the craft, urged for schools to take up the art, which he said was at risk of dying.

Wirebender Henderson Jones wants to see the art taught in schools. (Photo credit: Jenique Belgrave/ Barbados TODAY)

“In the schools they learn the little ones, the cloth side of it and decoration and those things. They never teach them the real art like wirebending and shaping and breast pieces and that is what we need that is dying. We don’t want to send to Trinidad and China and get it made to bring it back here, then a costume will soon cost $1 000 and over,” he lamented.

Quincy Jones, bandleader of Zenobia said, “I enjoy Crop Over but there comes a time when you have to say I am thankful. In life you have to know when to move on and I am moving on not now but soon.”

He further noted that he would be passing over the baton to younger bandleaders.

Expressing his belief that there needs to be more focus on heritage, he nevertheless acknowledged that “life and everything is changing”.   

Salt’s bandleader Christopher Williams said that he returned last year after taking a decade-long break from the event to contribute more of his knowledge to the festival which he suggested was at risk of losing its cultural flavour.

Christopher Williams said his band Salt will continue to pay tribute to the Barbados Landship . (Photo credit: Jenique Belgrave/ Barbados TODAY)

“I think there isn’t a lot of dimension to mass and the thread to cultural and creative mass is slowing changing and I embrace change, but at the same time I think there should be some consistency in terms of what is indigenous, what is creative and what is cultural,” he stated.

Again, paying tribute to the Barbados Landship with his band, Williams stated he is already planning ahead to bring several iterations of such over the next few years.

(JB)