VI festival has become nothing but ‘feathers & flesh’- Eileene L. Parsons
“Let me first say, I know I am of a different generation and what is happening now, I know I honestly can't relate to and especially knowing what we started out as, and I was a part of what started out and seeing what is happening now.”
Ms Parsons was at the time a guest on the July 30, 2023, edition of Real Talk with Karia J. Christopher when she voiced her disapproval of how the festival parade has evolved, particularly the costumes involved in the parade.
Feathers & Flesh in VI
“Years ago, a reporter in Trinidad writing in a Trinidad newspaper, say Trinidad Carnival had become nothing but feathers and flesh. This was a Trinidad reporter… Trinidad Carnival has become nothing but feathers and flesh. This is what has happened to us,” she said.
Ms Parsons said the VI is no longer portraying a festival as it was and recalled being in Rio de Janeiro for carnival there as well as experiencing Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
“The young ladies they have on practically nothing and this is what we are doing, and this is not what we the old people in 1954 wanted to see. We wanted to see something that speaks of festival, the emancipation that our ancestors came out of when it was proclaimed August 1st, 1834.”
'I am embarrassed" - She said
Ms Parsons added that as a female of a different generation, she is now embarrassed of the state of affairs in the VI as it relates to the festival.
“I am honestly embarrassed, honest to God. I am embarrassed by what I am seeing on Road Town street.
“Three weeks ago. I went to my hairdresser on Wednesday and a lady in there said Ms P I was talking about you last night. I say what did I do now? She said nothing Miss P, but I saw some costumes that going to be in the parade this year and I said this year Ms P will faint away,” she related.
“It is nothing more than two little dots for the breast and a triangle for in front, that’s it,” Ms Parsons said.
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36 Responses to “VI festival has become nothing but ‘feathers & flesh’- Eileene L. Parsons ”
Everybody who can afford to leaves for the whole week, or longer - and the BVI is the only country in the Caribbean where it is cheaper to buy flights to the Island for festival than it is to buy flights to leave - the population votes with its feet.
Let's just scrap festival next year - it is such a waste of money.
I saw a woman photo in one phone company, I took a photo and try to find out who in Gender affairs and those organizations that i should send it to, because it is time all the women look back and see how this affect them. Yesterday,one guy told me that when he decided to get a wife none of them ladies he will choose. I believe the display by some company of the festival attire needs to be fixed. Stop it! As this is what you think of your women staff, when you see noting wrong with it. And to think cheaply about women is a violation of the moral conscious laws.
The same can be said for every other aspect of life here. We have no standards for ourselves so it is the Wild West and we start to point fingers instead of seeing where we can create the BVI we want. We BVIslanders do not respect our own laws and customs but we expect that ex-pats will.
Festival is what it is today because we have allowed it to be this way, in our country! Decide what we want Festival to portray and get the Committee to enforce it so that the participants will stay in line. If we want a carnival, have a carnival. If we want Festival to be a celebration of emancipation and a culture, then make it that. And if we want both, separate them and ensure that each is what it is meant to be!
witness what some of their wannabe innocent school children does be carrying on in tphep pp streets , some of them would faint / and as I said before , if the parents don't get their school pchildren do a blood test to know what some of them are on , then they will be in for a rude awakening •¿•