La festival de Capisterre is an annual festival celebrated in the region of

Capisterre Capisterre (a corruption of the original French name Capesterre) is a region covering the Northern Coastal plain on the Island of Saint Kitts. It was originally colonized by the French in the early 17th century, with its capital on the only harbou ...

, St. Kitts. The Capisterre region was the earliest area in St. Kitts to be settled by Europeans and was part of French St. Christophe from 1625 to 1713. The area now holds four main settlements: Newton Ground village, St. Paul's village,

Dieppe Bay Town Dieppe Bay Town is a town in Saint John Capisterre Parish in the island of Saint Kitts, in the country of Saint Kitts and Nevis in the West Indies. Settled in 1538, it is the oldest town founded by Europeans in the whole of the Eastern Caribbean. ...

, and Parson's Ground village, all separated from each other by miles of sugarcane fields. The festival was established in 2001 to foster unity amongst these four villages, often dubbed by locals "the back of de land" due to their being the furthest locations on the island from the capital city of

Basseterre Basseterre (; Saint Kitts Creole: ''Basterre'') is the capital and largest city of Saint Kitts and Nevis with an estimated population of 14,000 in 2018. Geographically, the Basseterre port is located at , on the south western coast of Saint Kit ...

. Individually, each village would have proved to be too small to hold a truly profitable community festival, but the union of the four villages resulted in the exact opposite—the largest community festival in the federation of

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...

in terms of both participant population and generated income. The income generated from the activities is in turn used to better the communities of Capisterre. The festival is celebrated in September around the time of the

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

celebrations.

References

Folk festivals in Saint Kitts and Nevis Recurring events established in 2001 Cultural festivals in Saint Kitts and Nevis 2001 establishments in Saint Kitts and Nevis {{SaintKittsNevis-stub