Crop Over 2015 promises to be even ???bigger and better???, with several new attractions expected to be on the calendar.
Speaking at the launch of the festival this morning at the Ministry of Culture, Sky Mall, Minister Stephen Lashley disclosed that although heritage events will continue as planned, patrons could expect a new Heritage Bus Tour set to replace last year???s Heritage Walk.
The hours for the popular Bridgetown Market will also be extended, and the Holetown Tea Festival revived.??
???This year, we have adopted a very interesting blend of roughly 30 events or so, which is to be executed over a 10-week period, inclusive of one mega Cavalcade, an entire pan weekend, a full Visual Arts festival complete with a competition.??We will also have the Read-in, an Evening of Folk, of course the Calypso competitions and the element of Masquerade, which is usually one of the popular occasions within Crop Over???,” Mr. Lashley stated.
Pointing out that Crop Over within the last four years had been expanding significantly, the Culture Minister added that ???there is something in Crop Over for everybody, not only in terms of partying and masquerading, etc., but everything is there from gospel to folk in Crop Over??????
During his wide-ranging briefing, the Culture Minister complimented young entrepreneurs for providing entertainment outside of the mainstream of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) activities and for moving across the Caribbean and taking advantage of ???exporting our expertise???.
In relation to the community outreach aspect of Crop Over, the Minister pointed out that each year, the NCF focused on trying to reach the various communities, ???to entice them to get involved in Crop Over???.
???Crop Over as you know many years ago really happened at the community level. You had the community fairs and what not and what I would like to see happen is for the communities to assert themselves more in terms of staging Crop Over events, where the NCF provides technical assistance but by and large, [they are] executed by their community group and a committee???,??? he surmised.
Plans to reinvigorate Kiddies Kadooment and the Junior Monarch competition were also discussed, as well as the continued growth of Foreday Morning, with Chief Executive Officer of the NCF, Cranston Browne, announcing Queen???s Park as an additional route and assembly point.
theresa.blackman@barbados.gov.bb