Got TIPS or BREAKING NEWS? Please call 1-284-442-8000 direct/can also WhatsApp same number or Email ALL news to:newsvino@outlook.com;                               ads call 1-284-440-6666

Emancipation Parade stays on Monday; Rise & Shine Tramp shifted to Tuesday

After weeks of discussions, the Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism, Honourable Luce D. Hodge-Smith (R4) has announced that the government has decided that the emancipation parade will remain on August Monday. Photo: Facebook
In an interview with Kareem Nelsom Hull on Wednesday, March 18, 2026,Honourable Luce D. Hodge-Smith stated, We've decided is that we will have the parade on August Monday and we will move the tramp to August Tuesday.’’ Photo: VINO/File
In an interview with Kareem Nelsom Hull on Wednesday, March 18, 2026,Honourable Luce D. Hodge-Smith stated, We've decided is that we will have the parade on August Monday and we will move the tramp to August Tuesday.’’ Photo: VINO/File
ROAD TOWN, Tortola, VI- After weeks of discussions, the Junior Minister for Culture and Tourism, Honourable Luce D. Hodge-Smith (R4), has announced that the government has decided that the Emancipation Parade will remain on August Monday.

In an interview with Kareem Nelson Hull on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, Honourable Hodge-Smith stated, "We've decided that we will have the parade on August Monday and we will move the tramp to August Tuesday."

Further review to be done 

The Junior minister, however, stated that a further review will be done on the Emancipation Parade and Tramp. 

"What we will do is that we will come back after the festival activity, and have a thorough review on where we are going with the festival because I think we just cannot address the surface, because there are some additional details that we wanted to be able to go into."

Concerns to be addressed

Honourable Hodge-Smith also stated that there are a number of concerns that need to be addressed regarding the staging of the Emancipation Festival.

"There are persons who were calling for our festival to be free, and then there are persons who are calling for festival days to be shortened. So, we definitely have to have further discussions about that because we've had a tramp on Tuesday in August before."

1 Response to “Emancipation Parade stays on Monday; Rise & Shine Tramp shifted to Tuesday”

  • dread (20/03/2026, 08:41) Like (0) Dislike (0) Reply
    Jouvert should stay on Monday....The Monday Jouvert is the essence of the emancipation celebration from slavery when the freed slaves danced in the street to welcome the sunrise day on their first free day in 1834. The Parade can shift to Tuesday....Now we have Jouvert on Tues(Town) and Wed (East End) morning.


Create a comment


Submit comment

Create a comment

Submit comment
Disclaimer: Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) welcomes your thoughts, feedback, views, bloggs and opinions. However, by posting a blogg you are agreeing to post comments or bloggs that are relevant to the topic, and that are not defamatory, liable, obscene, racist, abusive, sexist, anti-Semitic, threatening, hateful or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be excluded permanently from making contributions. Please view our declaimer above this article. We thank you in advance for complying with VINO's policy.

Follow Us On

Disclaimer: All comments posted on Virgin Islands News Online (VINO) are the sole views and opinions of the commentators and or bloggers and do not in anyway represent the views and opinions of the Board of Directors, Management and Staff of Virgin Islands News Online and its parent company.