Stakeholders in the 2022 Crop Over Festival have hailed it as a success despite the many challenges facing the country.
And National Cultural Foundation (NCF) Chief Executive Carol Roberts-Reifer has highlighted the “enormous effort” it took to organize the festival at short notice and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She made the comment this morning during a press conference where she was joined by several key festival attendees, who all spoke glowingly about the festival.
recalls Roberts-Reifer. “We have received word that we can present a short concept for Crop Over [in] the end of February. We went public led by the minister on March 22 and our first events took place in May.
“When we all do the math, we can see what a gigantic effort it took to reach the public both locally, regionally and internationally in such a short space of time. But not just to get there, but to get there with a product that from all reports has been highly supported by all participants,” she said during a press conference held at the NCF headquarters.
This morning, the music director of the National Youth Steel Orchestra, Lowrey Worrell; COWilliams House of Soca tent manager Sharon Carew-White and Central Bank Visual Arts Exhibition curator Oneka Small were full of praise for this year’s celebrations.
Worrell, a music educator, said the pan program on the island was growing. He said that among the group of 90 members were some who were recruited through the Pan in Schools programme, which was initiated this year by KKF.
He described Pandemonium, which took place at the National Botanic Gardens, as an “amazing event” that exceeded even his expectations.
“The frying pan program is growing. “From Pandemonium, we’ve had people call and start the initial program because they liked what they saw,” he said.
Furthermore, he said other countries, including Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, had come to glorify the event.
Worrell called for investment from the private sector in providing more funds for the program.
Carew-White, whose tent produced 2022 calypso monarch Quon as well as Tune of the Crop winner Brucelee Almighty, said she was delighted with the public’s support throughout the festival.
She commended the NCF for allowing artists to use the Pelican Recording Studio, describing it as a “brilliant” initiative that gave artists an opportunity to record and be heard.
“It meant that their music would reach a lot more people,” she said.
Meanwhile, Small, who oversaw a series of Emancipation Season Visual Arts, said she was happy to see the visual arts incorporated in a big way into the festival. She said it gave a large number of artists the opportunity to showcase their work.
“There was a strong sense of inclusion of the visual arts in the festival. We were part of the events and really felt involved. A lot of times the visual arts tend to be on the outside, but obviously Crop Over 2022 would have had a huge level of inclusion,” Small said.
NCF Marketing Officer Ashley Dyall revealed that social media was used extensively during the festival. She reported that great interest had been shown from both Barbadians and people living abroad.
Dyall said 6,700 people watched the folk concert online, 113,000 watched Grand Kadooment, 30,000 watched Junior Monarch while 29,000 watched Pandemonium, suggesting there was a high level of interest in the festival. (RB)
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