Crop Over back in full

By Jenique Belgrave

For the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Crop Over Festival will have a full slate of events.

Making the announcement on Friday during a post-Cabinet press briefing, Minister with responsibility for Culture Senator Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight said, however, that the much-anticipated decision on the Grand Kadooment route will not be revealed until next week following discussions with all relevant stakeholders.

“We will be returning to the full gamut of the Crop Over calendar and the events that we are accustomed to. So that means that this year, unlike last year, we will see Junior Kadooment again. Last year, we moved to PANdemonium and that was extremely successful so that will return. We will not have the calvacades but we will keep the Crop Over Sweet Limes which was one of the features that we had last year that was extremely successful,” she stated. 

More details about the 2023 edition of the festival are expected to be unveiled next week.

The Crop Over Festival will fall into the Season of Emancipation which will run from April 14 to August 27 and Senator Munro-Knight provided details about some of the activities that will be held during this period.

She said a commemoration of the Bussa rebellion will launch the season on April 14.

“We will have a documentary that will be aired on that date, but the importance of how we would do that documentary is critical. 

“So that documentary is not just a core of people, of dancers and actors and actresses, etcetera, but we will be going to communities to journal that whole process of the Bussa rebellion and wherever that takes place within those communities is where we intend to find the talent.

“So the dancers and the schools and all of those people within the communities we want to bring them in to also be part of [the] talent [and] that story as well,” the minister explained. 

Senator Munro-Knight said there will also be a Marcus Garvey Day during the Season of Emancipation, featuring a competition for people to present innovative cultural projects or ideas for funding by the Ministry of Culture, as well as a Jackie Opel Day which will feature a symposium discussing the state of music production and distribution in Barbados.

“We will also be telling the story of black entrepreneurship and what that looks like. We will be going into markets and finding those people who are doing the best cow heel soup and whatever else that is indigenous for us, and telling those stories and highlighting the vendors. That whole spirit of who we are as Barbadians, we want to be able to tell that story,” she said.

Asked when the monument selected to replace the controversial Lord Nelson Statue will be installed, Munro-Knight said this was slated for November. 

jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb