Crop Over, the festival of the sugar cane harvest, currently extends over a 12 week period from May to August, with the introduction of the popular cultural showcase of talent known as the Community Cavalcades which are held in each of the parishes of Barbados, and are designed to create an exciting build-up to the festival. This colourful festival is one of the western world's oldest celebrations, believed to be the oldest of the post-Colombian age, with origins that can be traced back to the 1780's when Barbados was the world's largest sugar producer. Plantation workers would announce the end of the sugar cane crop with its gruelling field work when the last cart of canes arrived in the plantation yard. A labourer would beat a make-shift gong to declare the crop over, after which a big one day celebration of feasting, dancing and frolic would begin, signalling the finale of another sugar cane harvest.
Crop Over, Barbados' most popular and colourful festival, is the biggest, major celebration in Barbados, attracting thousands of visitors every year from across the globe with its exciting activities, local cuisine, concerts, shows and parades.
Crop Over activities officially begin with a procession called the Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes in mid-July, and continue for five weeks ending with the Grand Kadooment.
Many of the original components like the Donkey Cart Parade and Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes are combined with modern attractions like the popular Calypso Tents and the fiercely contended Calypso Monarch Competition, including the keenly contested Junior Calypso Monarch competition, to give this festival an appeal unlike any other elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Crop Over, from its one day origins, now offers five weeks of cultural, historical and musical events, where practically every form of music on the island resonates, from the old time Ruk-a-Tuk to its present modification called Ring Bang, along with Calypso, Soca, and Steel Pan rhythms.
The celebrations are not only vibrantly colourful and full of music, but also reveal various features of Barbadian culture with its mixture of Afrikan survival traditions and Western modern culture, with displays of art, craft, music, and dance.
Tuk (Ruk-a-Tuk) is a creative blend of British military and African rhythms indigenous to Barbados, where a trio of colourfully dressed, roving minstrels play a variety of rhythms on the kettle drum, bass drum and penny whistle.The cycle begins with a slow waltz beat, then glides into a march rhythm before accelerating into an almost frenetic African beat.
The Steel Pan is a musical instrument invented in Trinidad, created by using old oil drums where the shape of the oil drum head is beaten out to form the slopes and slants that make the various notes.
Bridgetown Market is made up of several stalls where local arts and crafts, food and beverages are sold, whose sweet aromas saturate the atmosphere as background calypso music and live Tuk band rhythms fill the air.
Cohobblopot, a potpourri of cultural talent, is a carnival type show where the Kings and Queens of the costumed Kadooment bands are chosen before a panel of judges, as members parade their elaborate and spectacular costumes. This huge Barbadian entertainment package also blends drama, dance and music, and includes the most popular Calypsonians and the hottest musical bands who perform before packed audiences.
Kiddies Kadooment allows children to participate in the Crop over celebrations, as the young revellers parade on the streets bedecked in their fanciful costumes to the National Stadium. There is also the Junior Calypso Monarch competition which celebrates the young talent Barbados has to offer.
Folk concerts; art and photographic exhibitions are also important components of the Crop Over festival, highlighting Barbadian history, culture and the artistic talents of the Barbadian.
Calypso is a musical rhythm which can be traced back to the time of the arrival of the first Afrikan slaves from Nigeria to the Caribbean during the 17th century. It is an art form developed mainly in Trinidad, that combines the skills of story telling, social commentary - (typically a humorous satire on social and political events by singers called calypsonians), and instrument making.
Calypso is one of the main features of the Crop Over festival. The calypsonians are arranged into tents where they compete for several prizes and titles, including the Party Monarch, the Road March Monarch and the Pic-O-De-Crop Monarch.
A major breathtaking event not be missed is the day long Party Monarch competition which is held at the scenic East Coast Road where the performers go on a stage with the Atlantic waves as the backdrop, as thousands gather along the hillsides with their picnic baskets to enjoy the performances.
The finals of the Pic-O-De-Crop competition are held at the National Stadium, followed by a Foreday Morning Jump Up in the early hours of the morning, where mud and paint covered revellers party through the streets from Bridgetown to Spring Garden.
Grand Kadooment, which represents the climax of the Crop Over festival, is a carnival like costume band road-march parade, that features large bands of members, some in excess of 1,000, adorned in elaborate costumes that depict a variety of themes.
Designers of the costumes contend for the coveted Designer of the Year prize, while the revellers are more interested in having a grand time jumping and gyrating to the pulsating rhythms of the most popular Soca and Ring Bang music, jamming the streets in an explosion of colour and excitement, from the National Stadium for a five mile march to Spring Garden where the partying continues with lots of food and drink, more music, and even a swim at the nearby beach, bringing a fitting end to the month long festivities.
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