BVI Emancipation Festival Returns for 2022!

 The Virgin Islands August Emancipation Festival is back. After a two year break due to Covid restrictions, Festival will be strutting its stuff once again from July 24th to August 5th.

A commemoration of the Emancipation Act, which freed the islands’ slave population in August 1834, Festival is a time of cultural celebration and unity: when visitors and locals mingle, enjoy local food and drink and dance to popular soca, reggae and calypso bands.

But as much fun as Festival is for adults, it is also for the young folks in the family. When my kids were young, going to Festival Village for johnny cakes, fried chicken and peas and rice was an annual ritual. As were the carnival rides, which were shipped onto the island and assembled – magically  transforming into merry go-rounds, ferris wheels and spinning tops. 

The boys couldn’t get enough of them, rising and precipitously falling and spinning until I feared they would lose their fried chicken. The bumper cars were always the big favorite. My sweet kids would turn the wheel and aim for fellow drivers with dexterity and a sense of vehicular aggression which I hoped they wouldn’t display when they got their drivers licenses. 

There were Carny games as well. Plastic clown heads with open mouths had slack balloons attached to their heads which were filled with water shot from a pistol. The biggest losers, though, were the parents who emptied their wallets faster than the balloons filled with water. But if lucky, a fortunate boy or girl would walk away with a stuffed Felix the Cat, and the evening (and empty wallet) was worth it when you saw the smile on their faces.

Whether this year sees carnival rides or not, there is always a host of activities for adults as well as kids. Reggae, soca and calypso acts at Festival Village are always a highlight, as are the Rise and Shine Tramp and Carrot Bay’s old-time cultural activities. The crowning of Miss BVI, the Calypso and Reggae Shows and the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation at the Sunday Morning Well are more crowd favorites. 

To me the event’s highlight is the August Monday Festival Parade. I like the colorful costumes and unfettered energy of the parade participants, the gorgeous floats, the festival queens in their white dresses and red sashes and kids watching with starry eyed wonder. It takes weeks to prepare for this parade, make costumes of feathers, sequins and taffeta, practice dance routines and fashion fanciful floats that might represent an underwater scene or an old time West Indian house. 

Noting that the BVI has recently gone through some hard times, Dirk L. Walters, the Chairman of the Virgin Islands Festival and Fairs Committee, rightly observed that the Virgin Islands is “overdue for celebrations after having its usual festivities interrupted by natural disasters, a pandemic and economic constraints. I couldn’t agree more!

Whether a kid, or just young at heart, Festival 2022 promises to be a time of fun and fancy for everyone!