IN keeping with ongoing global efforts to contain and manage the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Barbados has taken the decision to cancel the country’s Crop Over festival this year.

The island’s premier arts and culture showcase which celebrates the end of the sugar cane crop with craft markets, soca and calypso competitions, parties, and much more, was scheduled to launch in June 2020.

The festival usually runs for two months, culminating on the first Monday of August with a colourful street parade dubbed Grand Kadooment.

On Kadooment Day, thousands of locals, visitors, and even celebrities, that have included Cultural Ambassador Rihanna and Lewis Hamilton, take to the streets in costume to party.

The original Crop Over tradition began in 1687 as a way to mark the end of the yearly sugar cane harvest. The celebrations were organised and sponsored by planters, who used gifts of food and liquor as a means of reinforcing and excusing the continued enslavement of their labour force.

However, with the harsh effects of World War II on Barbados, these annual celebrations came to an end.

The modern-day Crop Over was revived and organised as a national festival in 1974 by local stakeholders and the Barbados Tourist Board, as a way to attract more tourists to the island and revive interest in local folk culture.

The authorities in Barbados have also cancelled the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts due to the COVID-19 crisis. This was slated to be staged during the months of October and November 2020.

This annual festival, which celebrates the best of Barbadian performing, visual, and culinary arts, will also return in 2021.

The Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports which is responsible for these two key events in that sister Caribbean isle said it will instead dedicate this time to a national training programme in schools and communities to ensure the continued development of local arts despite the festival cancellations.