2012 VI Festival: Over & Out!
For those who remember it, many turned out from the 26th, of July 2012 to have their hearts blessed at the religious night hosted by the Virgin Islands Heritage Month Committee. For the rest of us, it was the heavy drum beat and sweet music of Kassav, the Francophone zouk band formed in Paris in 1979, St. Vincent's Soca Monarch Skinny Fabulous, our very own local Showtime Band now the road march champion yet again, Dominican band Triple K and Roy Cape All Star featuring Blaxx out of Trinidad & Tobago among many others.
Yes and it was the Miss BVI Contest where many were proud to proclaim for the first time in a long time that an indigenous (able to trace her parents and grandparents to being born in the VI) young lady worn the crown, the calypso show sometimes controversial, the parade on August Monday filled with glamour, colour, style, food, people and workup and of course the August Tuesday horse races at the Downs with St. Thomas’ speed horse Bud White taking back to the USVI the Premier’s Cup.
Not to be confused, because the horse races at Ellis Thomas Downs in Sea Cows Bay is not the same as the donkey races at Carrot Bay, although the jury is still out!
Oh and yes East End did have a parade and they must be given credit for having the best jouvert this year.
While the Virgin Islands official 2012 Emancipation celebration ended with the Carrot Bay fete on 11th, August 2012 for many, the curtains really come down when the symbols of the festival celebrations are removed from public places.
If you travel to East End, Road Town or Carrot Bay, you will notice that the symbols of the 2012 VI festival have been removed for the most part.
In Road Town, the VI capital city and site of the Claudette “Boopie” Smith festiville, the site is about clear until next year. On the streets of Road Town festival flags have been removed and yes the curtains are really down on the 2012 celebrations.
The year’s theme was “Bringing Back Our Cultural Past, Let’s Celebrate BVI Festival with Class!” and was submitted by Florence Phillips. The winning slogan was: “A Golden Story to Tell, Enjoy VI Festival 2012” which was submitted by Dr. Quincy Lettsome.
We may not all agree on whether the 2012 Festival on Tortola was a success or a failure as it’s very easy to be critical. But the organizers must be given credit for the hard work and dedication to the cause of trying to preserve our history and culture. We are awaiting now the financial report to help inform our decision.
With the 2012 Emancipation/festival celebration now over and out, running a festival and cleaning up afterwards and striving to please a critical public might be as challenging as orbital engineers designing a craft that can take off either from a rolling start like an airplane or an upright posture like a rocket, fly to orbit and come back down without shedding any hardware along the way.
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