Sleepless Weekend of Crop Over | Festival Friday

It’s finally here! The final shows, the last jump up, the final hoorah before we have to wait another year for the Crop Over festival to be back with us again. I know this weekend, there will be many people who would not have slept since Emancipation Day (1st August), because they’re busy attending jump ups, concerts and fetes. I’ll try to do a round up post with all of the winners of the competitions next Friday, but this weekend, I’m going to be at Bridgetown Market (which starts on Friday) with the thousands of Bajans that pass through for the local craft, garments, fashion shows, entertainment and of course, the YUMMY food!

Friday is also the big Pic-O-De-Crop Calypso Finals where Aziza Clarke one of the contestants from the Juniors competition (a mere 18 years old) will be competing with seasoned veterans and a few newer competitors. I think that’s amazing really, as it’s about time that the younger generation starts coming into these “big people” competitions and giving them a run for their money. I’m really happy to see it happening.

Saturday morning will be the Fore-day morning jam, something that hardly ever interests me, but thousands of Barbadians join T-shirt bands, now evolving to costume bands or revel in their own “costumes”, partying through Bridgetown to Spring Garden. The customers are becoming very sophisticated these days, and I kind of miss the days of strictly T-shirts, paint, mud and water. But changing times, I guess. This jump usually takes place right after the crowning of the Pic-O-De-Crop Calypso King or Queen.

Of course on Sunday there will be Cohobblopot (pronounced Co- hob-boa- lah-pot) haha! This is being marketed as more of international event and besides our local artistes, Lil Rick (one of my favourites), Biggie Irie, Rupee, Red Plastic bag, Bobo and Fadda Fox,  there will be RDX from Jamaica (Dub/Dancehall), and a number of Trinidadian Soca artistes such as Patrice Roberts, Faye-Anna Lyons and Bunji Garlin. I actually wanted to go this year, but sadly I’m not… :(.

Finally on Monday, my favourite part of the festival…. Grand Kadooment where Bajans parade in beautiful costumes, though the concepts aren’t as inventive as years previous. I’m still a huge fan of beads and feathers, but I would love to see a bit more creativity go into both the male and female costumes.

So here’s a quick run-by of this weekend in case you didn’t follow all of my yapping…

Friday, 2nd August 2013 – Bridgetown Market on the Spring Garden Highway (and all weekend long)
                                         Pic-O-De-Crop Finals at Kensington Oval (more details here)
Saturday, 3rd August 2013 – Fordeay Morning Jam from Carlisle Carpark/ BTI Carpark (Lower Bay                                                        street) to the Spring Garden Highway (more info here)
Sunday, 4th August 2013 –  Cohobblopot at Kensington Oval
Monday, 5th August 2013 – Grand Kadooment from Warrens through the National Stadium and to the                                                    Spring Garden Highway
Friday, 9th August 2013 – Crop Over Visual Arts Festival Ends at the Grande Salle, Spirit Bond Mall and                                              Queen’s Park Gallery at Pelican