Steel Pan All over! | Festival Fridays

Hey all! Today I’m also a part of the Aloha Friday blog hop! Click the button below and check out all the other lovelies participating :).

Earlier this week, we had a Topical Storm, thank God it wasn’t anything too serious and there was no damage done here, at least not reported. It was quite a lazy week for me too, I haven’t done much more than work. 😦

Yesterday was Pan Fusion at Illaro Court, while this Saturday is Pan in De City & Cruise. It’s a new twist on the old Pan in De City, where steel orchestras would walk through town playing, and set up in various areas and entertain passers-by. This new concept includes a cruise filled with pan music to the North of Barbados, so you basically have steel pan entertainment in 2 cities, Bridgetown then Speightstown.  I think it’s quite interesting as cruises have become increasingly popular here and it is a fun way to in-cooperate pan into that. It gives the event a new dimension. Typically the entertainment in the city is free, but the cruise would cost you a bit.

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Then to continue with the steel pan rave, there’s also Pan Pun de Sand which is entirely free and is always packed with people. It’s on a very popular beach, Brandon’s Beach and the vibe is really relaxing, there are vendors selling food and drinks and lovely music from start to finish. I don’t think I’ll make it out to Pan Pun de Sand this year though, I may have some other plans. I remember one year I tried to attend, the rain poured and poured, it was like I wasn’t to be there haha!

It’s the weekend and there will be tons of events going on…
Saturday, 13th July- Pan in De City & Cruise from Bridgetown to the Speightstown Esplanade
                               World Kids Fair with Calypso Circus at The Ranch, Spring Garden
Sunday, 14th July- Pan Pun De Sand on Brandon’s Beach
Wednesday, 17th July- Junior Calypso Monarch Lunchtime Concert at the Frank Collymore Hall (more details here)
Thursday,18th July- Crop Over Visual Arts Festival Evening of Interpretation at the Grande Salle
Friday, 19th July- Pic-O-De-Crop Semi-finals at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium (more details here)
All week- Various Calypso/Soca Tents will be open.

Crop Over Heats up! | Festival Fridays

Last week I barely catch a glimpse of the Opening Gala’s parade. While I was in town, we went shopping and almost forgot. But I do have some pictures of the bits that I caught, as well as some video (coming a bit later).

Land Ship and Tuk Band performing in the street.

The Barbados Landship is celebrating 150 years of existence this year.

This week things are heating up for Crop Over, more and more events hosted by the NCF and private persons are scheduled. I’m hoping that before the season is out I go to a Pork Lime!

Today is actually a big event, the Sweet Soca Semi Finals, taking place at the Party Stand from 10 pm. I’m not going to be attending this event sadly, but you can see the list of performers here. Early bird tickets are $20 and patrons will pay $30 at the door. This would be a great after-work event to attend because you can lime while enjoying live performances.

Tuk band (a bit blurred)

The sweet sounds of pan also serenaded on-lookers.

Also coming up this weekend is the Junior Monarch Semi-finals, and it’s not to be missed, these kids are definitely holding the future reigns of Calypso in their hands. That’s this Saturday at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre at 8 pm.

Cars for the winners!

Anyway, this weekend and next week you can look forward to…
Saturday, 6th July- Junior Monarch Semi-finals at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre
Sunday, 7th July- Official Opening of the Crop Over Visual Arts Festival at the Grande Salle
Monday, 8th July- Visual Arts Exhibition at the Grande Salle (runs from 8th July to 9th August)
Thursday,11th July- Pan Fusion at Illaro Court
All week- Various Calypso/Soca Tents will be open.
Next weekend will be filled with Steel Pan events….here’s a teaser:

If you want to know more about Crop OVER, you can visit the OFFICIAL website.

Disclaimer: I am by no means affiliated with the NCF, I just like Crop Over and think it’s great to share.

What is Crop Over and the Opening Gala? | Festival Fridays

So if you don’t live in Barbados, you may be wondering what’s the “Crop Over” I keep talking about. Well, it’s a month long festival celebrated in Barbados from about 1st July until 1st week of August. In the past, it was a celebration of the end of the harvesting of crops, hence the name “Crop Over”. You can refer to my previous blog post (from 2011) for more details on how it came about and changed over the years, as well as the top events to look out for.

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This week is the Opening Gala, signalling the official start of the Crop Over season. For the past 2 months, our airways (radio) have been pumping out both new and old calypso and soca music. Along with the number of  Summer fetes and cruises with crop over themes  to warm up the bajan crowd for what’s to come, the “Crop Over fever” as they call it is imminent.

Here’s what you can look forward to this weekend and next week!
Saturday, 29th June- Opening Gala & Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes at Queens Park
Thursday, 4th July- Crop Over Gospel Concert at the Lloyd Erskine Sandifor Centre
Friday, 5th July- Sweet Soca Monarch Semi Finals at the Party Stand
All next week- Various Calypso/Soca Tents will be open.

If you want to know more about Crop OVER, you can visit the OFFICIAL website.

OR, you could watch this video I made 2 years ago when we spotted Rihanna on a music truck, haha. (I’m like really nervous here, so be warned.)

Disclaimer: I am by no means affiliated with the NCF, I just like Crop Over and think it’s great to share.

First Day of Summer…New Friday Series! | Festival Fridays

Today is 21st of June, the Summer Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere, also the official start of Summer 2013! Check out Wednesday’s Summer Swimsuits Guide for more summer fun! Yay to summer! (edit: my apologies, I miss counted my posts and thought I had 250, when it’s really 248 published posts, but just a few more days to 250!)

Not my own image

If you’ve been following along this blog for some time, you would be aware that around this time every year, Barbados celebrates Crop Over, our prime festival for the year. I would typically post some features on Crop Over during the festival, but this year I want to tell you a lot more about Barbados’ biggest festival! Enter Festival Fridays, a new section of posts I will hopefully be doing every Friday about the major Crop Over Events coming up that week/weekend and some information on Crop Over.

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Already for this Crop over Season we have had a number of Calvacades (2, and 3) in May, as a warm up for the festival. This was then followed by a Heritage Walk and a Heritage Tour through Bridgetown earlier this month. Junior Monarch calypso tents as well as the Pic o de Crop Calypso tents are slated to open and be judged this upcoming week. The Junior Monarch tent had already opened earlier this week, and judging is to take place very soon for the big Calypso titles up for grabs. I’ll explain those later as this post is bordering being long-winded.
Coming up this week!
21st- 23rd June– Opening night of a number of Pic o de Crop Calypso Tents
Sunday, 23rd June– Junior Calypso Monarch Tent at the Lester Vaughan School
Tuesday 25th June– Start of Judging for Pic o de Crop Calypso tents

I hope you enjoy this new series, it’s not about make up, but our Crop Over festival is a beautiful event that should be shared with you!