One of Barbados’ most beloved annual cultural gatherings, the Flow Oistins Fish Festival, is facing an unprecedented downturn that has left long-time and first-time vendors alike frustrated and calling for urgent institutional changes. During a on-site visit by Barbados TODAY on Easter Sunday afternoon, the widespread discontent among stallholders was impossible to miss, with nearly every seller reporting historically low foot traffic and revenue that fails to cover even basic participation costs.
An anonymous toy vendor, visibly frustrated by the lack of customer activity, shared that she had only earned $80 on the festival’s Saturday, and had not made a single sale by mid-afternoon Sunday. Surveying the nearly empty aisles between stalls, she explained that recouping the fee she paid to secure her vending spot is now almost out of the question.
Multiple vendors pointed to insufficient promotional outreach as a core driver of the low turnout. One seller, who described the first three days of the event as shockingly lifeless, noted that numerous attendees she spoke to had no advance warning that the festival was running that weekend. Even after dark, when the event traditionally draws the largest crowds, there has been little energy or activity this year. She stressed that while she holds out hope for a last-minute uptick in visitor numbers, the 2024 festival is already the worst she has ever experienced. To reverse the decline, she suggested organizers reintroduce popular traditional activities and add more family-focused programming specifically designed to attract young children and their parents.
For Angelina Powell-Austin, a veteran vendor who has participated in the Oistins Fish Festival for 43 consecutive years, the 2024 downturn is part of a gradual but steady decline she has watched unfold over decades. “Years ago, this event was vibrant. By Saturday alone, we would already earn back every dollar we spent on our spot, then pack up early and return on Monday to keep all remaining sales as pure profit,” she recalled. Now, she says, each passing year brings worse turnout and lower sales, and this year’s atmosphere has been “boring, dead” compared to the event’s glory days. Though she acknowledged that all events evolve over time, she joined other sellers in calling for meaningful changes to reverse the trend.
Lateisha Edwards, who runs a local plant and seedling stall and has participated in the festival for 15 years, echoed that assessment, calling 2024 one of the worst iterations of the event in her tenure. She noted that only opening Friday saw moderately heavy foot traffic, with all subsequent days slowing to a near standstill—even though many browsers stopped to look at her plant stock, very few ended up making purchases. Edwards says she is still holding out hope that sales will pick up before the festival wraps.
A jewelry vendor in only her fourth year of participation struck a more optimistic tone, even as she acknowledged that the 2024 event has failed to meet her expectations. “Business is always a gamble,” she explained. “Even if sales are slow this weekend, this is still a chance to get my brand in front of new people, and many customers come back to purchase from me after the festival ends. There is always reason to hope things will improve.”
Fruit and vegetable seller Shiann Harvey added that her sales are also far below average. In typical years, she would have sold out of her entire stock by Easter Sunday, but this year she still has most of her produce left. Like other vendors, she called for organizers to add more diverse entertainment and engaging attractions to draw crowds back to the event and revitalize its declining popularity.