Barbados / Special Interests / Carnivals & Festivals

Barbados has an action-packed annual calendar with a huge selection of events throughout the year, ranging from food festivals to musical extravaganzas. The revelries of its carnival, Crop Over, may dominate the summer months, but it is not the island’s only top event. Cultural fans can relish the island’s celebrated Holders Season.

Carnival - The highlight of the year’s festivities on Barbados is the now well-established Crop Over Festival, which commences in July and lasts for around 5 weeks. A truly local event, the festival commemorates the end of the sugarcane season and starts with the Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes and the crowning of the King and Queen of the Crop. The origins of the festival date back to the late 1780s, when simple thanksgiving celebrations were held at the end of the sugar harvest. Over time the celebrations became more elaborate and continued until the 1940’s when the “crop-over” festivities ended for a number of reasons, one being the decline of the sugar industry.

The festival was resurrected in 1974 and saw the introduction of a number of new elements. There are weekly Calypso Tent shows in the run up to the Pic-O-De-Crop Calypso Monarch and the Party Monarch competitions. The Sunday evening of the final weekend sees Cohobblopot, a large carnival-like show where the Queen and Monarch of the costumed bands parade and compete for prizes at Kensington Oval. It is a showcase for music, dance and culture. A more recent addition is the Foreday Morning Jam or Jump-up. This is similar to the J’ouvert of other carnivals, an early morning street party held in Bridgetown (don’t wear anything you don’t want to be ruined, as party goers smear themselves in paint and oil!), which heads to Spring Garden Highway.

The climax of the festival is the Grand Kadooment, which is held on the first Monday of August, which is a national holiday. This is a spectacular, soca-driven street procession that currently leads from Warrens to the National Stadium and then down to the finish at Spring Garden Highway. Huge sounds systems on trucks pump out the calypso hits of the year, with the chosen Road March tunes blaring out to throngs of revellers who “jump-up” and “wind-up”, while downing gallons of beer and rum. Membership of the carnival bands is not restricted to locals. It is possible to join in the dancing by buying one of the costumes in a band and dancing along with them. Costumes can be as simple as a t-shirt or extremely elaborate.

Waterman Festival - Held in February, it celebrates Barbados’s beach culture with windsurfing, surfing, kite-surfing, fishing, long-distance swimming, paddle-surfing, beach cricket and conch shell blowing competitions.

Holetown Festival - This annual cultural event takes place in February with a street parade (classic and vintage cars), street fair, police band concert, floodlit tattoo, steel band concerts, calypso and gospel music, folk dancing, Queen of Festival beauty show, 7km road walk and road run.

Holders Season - Arguably the most renowned event of the year for cultural buffs. It takes place in March/April, comprising performances of opera, classical music, poetry, comedy and theatre at Holders House.

Barbados Gospelfest - Established in 1993 as a showcase for Barbadian/Caribbean gospel, it draws performers from across the region as well as the UK and USA. The eight-day festival runs across various venues on the island during May, including Farley Hill National Park.

Barbados Food & Wine and Rum Festival - A collection of special events in November with cooking demonstrations by international and local chefs and wine/rum seminars held at various locations throughout the island.

Barbados Independence Surf Festival - The Pro Surfing Championships capitalise on the Atlantic swell along the island’s east coast with contests held during November at the Soup Bowl, Bathsheba.