Crop Over is a traditional

harvest festival A harvest festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times at different places. ...

which began in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, having had its early beginnings on the sugar cane plantations during slavery.

History

The original crop-over tradition began in 1687 as a way to mark the end of the yearly harvest, but was wide-spread throughout the region at the time, including in

St. Vincent Saint Vincent may refer to: People Saints * Vincent of Saragossa (died 304), a.k.a. Vincent the Deacon, deacon and martyr * Saint Vincenca, 3rd century Roman martyress, whose relics are in Blato, Croatia * Vincent, Orontius, and Victor (died 305) ...

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. As such, it still shares similarities with

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

. Many crop-over celebrations were organized and sponsored by planters, who used gifts of food and liquor as a means of reenforcing and excusing the continued enslavement of their labour force. However, slaves would also have often unsanctioned fetes that featured singing, dancing and accompaniment by bottles filled with water, ''

shak-shak The shak-shak (or ''chak-chak'') is a kind of Antillean musical instrument, similar to maracas or shakers. They are played in Barbados, Montserrat, Grenada and elsewhere in the Caribbean. Their uses include Montserratian string bands and t ...

'',

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, and

bones A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, an ...

that were more in keeping with their ancestral culture. Other traditions that were later added included climbing a greased pole, feasting and drinking competitions. However, with the harsh effects of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

on Barbados, these annual celebrations came to an end. The Crop Over Festival was first launched on June 1, 1970 around the same time as the birth of

Alison Hinds Alison Amanda Hinds (born 1 June 1970) is a British-born Bajan soca artist based in Barbados. She is one of the most popular soca singers in the world. Biography Alison Hinds was born in London on 1 June 1970 and grew up in Plaistow.Batey, A ...

, but was not officially called a festival until 4 years later. Crop Over was revived and organized as a national festival in 1974 by local stakeholders including

Julian Marryshow Julian Marryshow (1918 – 17 July 2012) was a Grenadian-born Royal Air Force fighter pilot during World War II. Later, as a tourism advisor in Barbados, he was credited with having reintroduced the traditional Crop Over festival, which had a co ...

, Flora Spencer, Emile Straker, and Livvy Burrowes with the Barbados Tourist Board, as a way to attract more tourists to the island and revive interest in local folk culture. Beginning in June, Crop Over now runs until the first Monday in August when it culminates in the finale, The Grand Kadooment.

Customs and tradition

The entire two months have a party-like atmosphere, with a variety of public and privately held events. The various official 'Events Barbados' festival albums typify the sense of national merriment which is prevalent across the season (see ). The private events serve as the lead up to Kadooment Day and have many concepts such as sunrise, cooler, sunset, and all-inclusive themes. One of the major public features held is the calypso competition.

Calypso music Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century and spread to the rest of the Caribbean Antilles and Venezuela by the mid-20th century. Its rhythms can be traced back to We ...

, originating in Trinidad, uses syncopated rhythm and topical lyrics which may satirise local politics or comment on the issues of the day.

Calypso tent Calypso tents are venues in which calypsonians perform during the Carnival season. They usually are cinema halls, community centers, or other indoor buildings which have seating and stage arrangements to host the entertainers, guests and patrons; ...

s feature a cadre of calypsonians who perform biting social commentaries on the happenings of the past year, political exposés or rousing exhortations to ''wuk up'' or "wine up", "jonesing", ''roll de bumper'', guh down (pronounced "dung") and "six-thirty" dance. Most recently, local variations of

soca music Soca music is a genre of music defined by Lord Shorty, its inventor, as the "Soul of Calypso", which has influences of African and East Indian rhythms. It was originally spelt "sokah" by its inventor but through an error in a local newspaper ...

have also featured prominently at the festival. There are also craft markets, food tents and stalls, street parties and cavalcades every week supplemented by other daily events. Competition 'tents' ring with the fierce battle of calypsonians for the coveted Calypso Monarch Award. There are also the

People's Monarch People's, branded as ''People's Viennaline'' until May 2018, and legally ''Altenrhein Luftfahrt Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, GmbH'', is an Austrian airline headquartered in Vienna. It operates scheduled and charter passenger flights ma ...

and

Party Monarch A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

competitions. The People's Monarch is a competition in which the public are given groups of songs; each group with two songs, and they vote until a winner is chosen. The Party Monarch competition, however, is chosen by a panel of judges and is based on presentation. Therefore, you may have the best song but not be able to make use of stage and props and not be crowned 'Party Monarch King/Queen'. The competition is held on the Ermy Bourne Highway, commonly known as East Coast. The air is redolent with the smells of Barbadian cooking during the

Bridgetown Market Street Fair The Bridgetown Market Street Fair is an annual sub-festival of the Barbados Crop Over Festival held in Bridgetown the capital of Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of ...

. Rich with the spirit of local

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

, the Cohobblopot Festival blends dance and

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

and

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

with the crowning of the King and Queen of costume bands. Every evening the 'Pic-o-de-Crop' Show is performed when finally the King of Calypso is crowned. The climax of the festival is Kadooment Day celebrated with a national holiday when costume bands fill the streets with Barbadian music and

fireworks Fireworks are a class of Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a l ...

. 2020's Crop Over and

National Independence Festival of Creative Arts The National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) is a festival organized by the National Cultural Foundation, held annually to commemorate the independence of Barbados. Music and other performing arts have been a part of the festival s ...

(NIFCA) were both cancelled due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Notes

Further notes

The Crop Over Festival: Barbados' Annual Carnival Celebration
by Baz Dreisinger, About.com

External links

Gallery
(Official) Event and Festival photo albums
Crop Over
(Official) website {{Carnival around the world Barbadian culture Carnivals in Barbados Harvest festivals History of sugar Food and drink festivals in Barbados Festivals established in 1688 Music festivals established in 1688 1688 establishments in the British Empire Music festivals in Barbados Carnival Summer events in Barbados Folk festivals in Barbados

History

Customs and tradition

See also

Notes

Further notes

External links