Commentator Mr Donald E. De Castro. Photo: Provided

"This year seemed to have just as much or more, of half nude women and children and as much vulgarity. Yes, lots of gyrating between male and female in the presence of children. The Minister, the Chairman and the entire Committee in 2014 still fail to realize that our festival is supposed to be a family oriented event and not for children to participate nude following the bad examples being set by adults and accepted by the Chairman and the Committee of the Parade. Photo: VINO

“It is about time we take a serious look at what we are doing, because it seems as if it is a big thing designed for people to make money and not for people to understand what it is we are celebrating,” said De Castro in a comment to this news site today August 20, 2014.

“Something being big don’t mean it is better…we are just having a party for party sake and we are not really celebrating abolition,” he said.

“We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect to get a different result,” he said.

De Castro expressed disappointment in Premier Dr. The Honourable D. Orlando Smith for describing the 2014 Festival as the best ever.

The following is the full text of De Castro’s article:

It is now several days since what was supposed to be our annual Festival has ended. However, it was nothing more than a big party for those persons whose sole interest is partying. But to those of us who want to see improvements to our annual celebration it was just not what many were looking forward to.

Let me start with the street decorations. If you drove from the round – about from Port Purcell into town as far as Palm Grove Center you would have noticed pennants stretched from one of Qwomar Buildings and on electrical polls flags advertising the 6oth Festival Celebration.

On some poles there were two flags and in the area from the round-about in town to Palm Grove Center there were flags on both sides of the road. From Palm Grove to McNamara there were pennants only with the exception of one flag in front of the Port Authority Building. From McNamara to Fort Burt where the other end of the town begins there were no flags, pennants or any form of decorations.

This being such a grand celebration one would have thought that some kind of decorations would have been placed on the Old Admiration Building, the Sir Olva Georges Plaza and Main Street.

These were the three main venues in our beginning where everything took place. We had no Waterfront Drive and the present location of the Sir Olva Georges Plaza was the site of the old Market place. Olva Georges is the only Virgin Islander Knighted by the English Monarch and I find this to be an insult to the memory of this man and complete disrespect to all True Virgin Islanders.

However, if you were in the area of Lower Estate Road you would have seen a whole lot of pennants at the end of the road just before you enter Huntums Ghut. Question, who placed them there and who paid for them? If it was private finances, that is not a problem. However, if it was the Festival Committee, then we have a real problem.

Appearances

Safety should always come before beauty, however, it seem that this combination is always at odd here in the Virgin Islands. In this instance, I make reference to the decoration of the Round-About in Road Town. It was a beautiful sight and display; however, it was not practical as no one driving could read the names of all the people.

While I am not sure what the laws of the Virgin Islands say, I do know that common sense dictates that walking around a round-about is stupid and dangerous (to anyone undertaking this feat). So why the pictures of all these Festival Queens were placed there is beyond the understanding of anyone even with the least amount of common sense. In my humble opinion it would have made a whole lot more sense displaying these pictures at the Plaza and the Old Administration Building.

The Parade

It is so difficult to determine where to start on this issue but I must say that after so many people discuss this issue with me ad also overhearing others discus it, it has to be once again classified as another disaster. I will admit that there were a few interesting floats troupes that featured some history and culture and I was very happy to see Anegada represented and Jost Van Dyke part of a Trio from the western end of Tortola.

With the few exceptions mentioned this was the biggest disaster ever, according to one spectator, and, believe it or not, this spectator was not a Virgin Islander but a Caribbean Expat. The remainder of the parade was nothing more than another big “carnival party”. On one of the trucks there was blatant disrespect by one of the singers talking about J’ouvert rather than “Rise and Shine” and how “we must jump up like we do for Carnival in Dominica”.

It show how much disrespect that so many people have for our “Rise and Shine” and our “Festival” names, and all this happens with the blessing of the Festival Committee.

This year seemed to have just as much or more, of half nude women and children and as much vulgarity. Yes, lots of gyrating between male and female in the presence of children. The Minister, the Chairman and the entire Committee in 2014 still fail to realize that our festival is supposed to be a family oriented event and not for children to participate nude following the bad examples being set by adults and accepted by the Chairman and the Committee of the Parade.

With all of this disappointment the Premier had the nerve to insult the intelligence of Virgin Islanders that this was the best Festival ever and how the booth owners benefited tremendously as if the festival is designed for people to make money rather than to expose our history and culture. This tells me that the Premier has no idea what our Festival is supposed to be.

Once again for those of you do not or want to understand, our Festival is supposed to demonstrate and depict our History and Culture. This means that young people and visitors at the end of the Festival would have had a better idea of we are and where we came from.