Does anyone remember where they were in 2011 when those first Rihanna Crop Over moves dropped? Although it took everyone’s favorite falcon in all its dazed, feathered glory for the Crop Over to make headlines, Barbados’ annual summer festival has, in fact, been going on for a really long time.
Since about the 1780s, in fact. At the time, the island was number one in sugar production, thanks to the labor of enslaved people forced to work on sugar cane plantations. At the end of each successful harvest season (hence the name “Crop Over”), they would celebrate deservedly with music, food and dance. Over the centuries, the Barbados sugar industry experienced a decline and by the 1940s the festival was no longer a thing. But in 1974, it came back new, improved and modernized. Since then, Bajans (a colloquial name for the people of Barbados) have been joined by people all over the world to participate in this centuries-old tradition.
As it was for those who came before us, the festival today is about a sense of joy and liberation, even if you can only make it for a long weekend. In 2022, this feeling is even more acute after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mood this time was one of extreme happiness, with locals and foreigners enjoying all the things the festival has to offer. We’re talking about morning parties that start in the dark, early hours of the morning and go past sunrise, with participants moving their waists and stretching their arms as the first light touches the horizon. Parties (parties, as they’re called in parts of the Caribbean) that will have you covered in paint and dust, foam rolling and hanging off the side of a truck equipped with speakers stacked high, blasting fast beats of soca music that twists the waist and makes the flesh tremble.
The festival itself lasts two joyous months and it all comes to a dazzling and exuberant end on the day of the Grand Kadooment, which is always the first Monday in August. Thousands of Bajans and people from all over the world take to the streets in glittering, jewel-encrusted costumes to “dance”, (the term used to describe the party) dancing along the street to soca music.
