标签： Barbados

On a bright Monday morning above the weathered grounds of the historic Andrews Factory, the air hummed with a familiar, beloved sound: the iconic whistle of wind through handcrafted kite frames, and the chatter of generations of Bajan kite enthusiasts gathered for the parish of St. Joseph’s annual kite-flying celebration. This beloved cultural ritual traces its origins back centuries to post-harvest festivities held across Barbados’ sugar-growing regions, and today it stands as a living bridge connecting the island’s industrial sugar-producing past to its vibrant, evolving folk heritage. Though official opening ceremonies were pushed back slightly by unforeseen logistics, the delay did nothing to dim the excitement of attendees, many of whom arrived hours before the event kicked off to claim their spots and catch the steady, ideal morning coastal breeze. By the time the celebration hit its peak, dozens of vibrant, creatively designed kites dotted the bright blue sky, dancing and dipping on the wind in a stunning display of local craftsmanship. For nearly all participants, the annual gathering is far more than a casual competition; it is a chance to uphold a centuries-old passion and strengthen community ties that stretch across decades and even generations. Rodney Clarke, a veteran kite-maker fondly known to the local community as “Mauby,” was spotted carefully piecing together a new handmade kite after his first creation of the day was brought down by a sudden gust of wind. Reflecting on a lifelong connection to the craft, Clarke explained that the tradition has grown from small informal post-harvest gatherings to the well-loved community event it is today, adding that the sense of collective joy far outweighs any competitive prizes on offer. “It’s just as fun as we get. It don’t be really no competition… just come and enjoy yourself,” he said. The event draws participants from near and far every year, including many who have left the parish but return annually for the gathering. Rohan Corbin, who has been flying kites since he was 10 years old, makes the trip even though he no longer lives in the community, drawn back by the tradition he has loved for decades. Not far from Corbin, Kerry Marshall, a kite-maker and flyer with 30 years of experience, traveled all the way from his current home in Florida to take part this year. Marshall has watched the craft evolve over his decades in the hobby, from traditional lightweight paper kites to more durable plastic designs that can stand up to stronger coastal winds, but he says the soul of the handcrafted art has stayed the same. “The sound of it, movement… and that’s a craft, you know, making different characters. We went from paper kites to plastic kites so they can last now… it’s just a craft to look awesome,” Marshall explained. Though this marked his first time entering the event’s formal competition, Marshall expressed confidence in his handcrafted entry, saying “I got a lot of confidence so far… it seems very positive.” While seasoned kite enthusiasts showcased their decades of technical skill and handiwork, the event also made space for emerging new talent, including 20-something Treshad Blenman, who has flown kites since he was a child but made his competitive debut this year. When asked about his chances of taking home a prize, Blenman laughed off any pressure, candidly admitting “Not confident. Not confident” as he pulled his damaged kite from the sky, ending his run in the competition early. By the end of the day, the event once again reaffirmed what the community has known for generations: in the heart of St. Joseph, the centuries-old tradition of handcrafted kite flying remains a soaring, living testament to Bajan ingenuity, creativity, and the unbreakable strength of local community bonds that draw people back year after year.

This weekend, the centuries-old coastal fishing community of Oistins in Barbados buzzed with electric excitement and friendly competitive spirit as the decades-old annual Oistins Fish Festival wrapped up its multi-day schedule with a dramatic final day of events. Held to honor Barbados’ deep-rooted connection to maritime fishing traditions, the closing day brought together seasoned local competitors and enthusiastic first-time participants, all testing their craft across a lineup of traditional contests that draw crowds of locals and international tourists year after year. Thousands of onlookers packed the village streets and waterfront to cheer on competitors, soaking up the lively atmosphere that has made the festival a beloved cultural staple for generations.

The day of competitions opened with the iconic Tray Balancing contest, an event that nods to Oistins’ long history as a bustling open-air fishing market, where vendors historically carried freshly caught produce and seafood to customers on their heads. Contestants were tasked with traversing a marked obstacle course while holding full wooden trays on their heads, forbidden from using their hands to steady the load. Many spectators gasped as competitors navigated tight turns and uneven ground, with most participants dropping their trays long before reaching the finish line. In the end, Alicia Arthur claimed the top prize, moving through the course with unshakable poise and steady grace that outmatched every other contender and left her rivals far behind.

Next up was the popular egg and spoon race, a lighthearted warm-up for the more rigorous seaside competitions that followed. In a tense final stretch that kept the crowd on their feet, Simran Persad, a Trinidadian student studying at the University of the West Indies, crossed the finish line first to take the win, capping off a nail-biting close that came down to less than a second between the top two runners.

As the crowd shifted down to Oistins’ sun-dappled waterfront for the festival’s core technical competitions, the energy of the day grew even more intense. First on the waterfront schedule was the Dolphin Skinning contest, where the audience fixed their attention on defending champion Tyrone Shorey, who came into the event looking to extend his long winning streak. Despite a determined early challenge from competitor Roy, who pushed an unprecedented fast pace from the start, Shorey’s signature clinical precision and years of experience proved unbeatable. Working at blistering speed with barely a pause to catch his breath, he skinned his catch in a new event record time, successfully retaining his championship title.

The technical competitions concluded with the Flying Fish De-boning contest, a tribute to the specialized skill required to prepare flying fish – Barbados’ national dish – for traditional recipes. This year, seasoned veteran Jackie Norgrove once again outperformed every competitor in the field, securing her fifth career win at the festival, with her first win stretching back to 2012. When asked about her impressive 14-year winning streak, which includes titles in 2012, 2013, 2018, 2025, and now 2026, Norgrove brushed off praise, noting that the task is a regular part of daily life for her. “It’s a normal day-to-day thing, so it just comes naturally now,” she said after the win. “It feels very good to take the title again this year.”

But the undisputed highlight of the entire final day came in the afternoon, with the festival’s legendary Greasy Pole competition – a grueling test of strength, coordination, and collective willpower that pits teams against each other to scale a 30-foot wooden mast heavily coated in grease, with the winning team claiming a prize waiting at the top. This year, competitor Joshua Drayton made history when he successfully reached the summit to claim victory for his team. Speaking after he climbed back down to the cheering crowd, Drayton credited his team’s careful planning rather than individual strength for the win. “Teamwork makes the job work easier,” he explained. “Once you’ve got a good team and understanding, you make the job easy. We didn’t just come with a plan; we executed the plan. The strategy was to get a firm foundation, a strong middle, and let the lightest and shortest man go to the top.”

As golden hour fell over the Oistins jetty and the sun dipped below the Caribbean horizon, the festival closed with live local music, shared feasts of fresh seafood, and community-wide celebrations. For attendees and organizers alike, the 2026 Oistins Fish Festival marked another successful year of honoring the working fishermen and women who have long been the backbone of both Oistins’ community and Barbados’ fishing industry, keeping centuries-old cultural traditions alive for new generations.

The 2026 iteration of the beloved Oistins Fish Festival has wrapped up, and event organizers are celebrating it as a marked success, citing tangible improvements across multiple areas of operation compared to previous years. In a closing statement following the conclusion of the multi-day festivities, Israel Mallett, co-chair of the festival organizing committee, shared his positive assessment of this year’s event, highlighting upgrades to both pre-event preparation and on-the-ground execution. Among the most notable advances was a streamlined onboarding and setup process for participating vendors, which ran far more efficiently than in prior editions. Most importantly, the entire festival unfolded with almost no major disruptions or safety incidents, a key milestone for the community-focused gathering.

Mallett noted that only one minor issue arose over the course of the event: a small vehicle collision that resulted in no injuries to attendees or staff, an outcome the committee counts as a win for event safety. That said, organizers did not dismiss constructive feedback from the public, which included observations that the festival’s atmosphere felt slower or less energetic than in past years at certain points. Rather than dismissing these critiques, Mallett connected the subdued energy to broader economic headwinds currently impacting the country, framing the public input as a valuable asset for future planning. He emphasized that the organizing committee actively welcomes all forms of feedback, as it gives the team clear areas to refine and improve for coming editions of the event.

“We love criticism. We like to hear from people what their thoughts are, what their feedback is, because those are things that we look to internalise and implement and work on for the years to come,” Mallett explained.

The co-chair also addressed growing concerns from participating vendors, who have reported declining sales and shrinking profit margins at the festival in recent years. While Mallett confirmed that the organizing committee takes full responsibility for core marketing and promotion of the event to drive attendance, he stressed that driving visitor engagement and sales is a shared responsibility among all stakeholders: event organizers, local fisherfolk, and vendors themselves. He added that the team adopted a new proactive approach to resolving vendor issues in real time this year, pointing to one example where organizers leveraged social media to amplify a struggling vendor’s visibility and attract more foot traffic during a slow period.

“One of the things we try to do is to work with the vendors. If there’s an issue that we can resolve on the spot, we try to resolve that issue on the spot and if it’s something we can’t resolve on the spot, we take it into our post-mortem and planning,” Mallett said.

Looking back on his tenure leading the festival’s organizing team, Mallett reflected that his time in the role has been a period of extraordinary personal and professional growth. When he first took on the leadership position, he brought little prior experience planning large-scale community events, but he noted that his outsider perspective and fresh approach have ultimately been an asset to the long-running festival. “It’s been a real experience of growth coming into it,” he said. “I have met a lot of great people through the vendors, the community, the fisher folk… it has been a really expanding experience for me.”

As one of the most anticipated groups taking part in this year’s Crop Over festival, Zulu International is celebrating a major milestone: a full decade of participating in the iconic Caribbean cultural celebration. To mark this 10-year journey, the band has announced that it will pull out all the stops this season to deliver what leadership calls the most authentic, immersive Crop Over experience in the group’s history.

The promise was made public by Nadesha Fagan, Zulu International’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, during a pair of landmark events held Sunday: the official reveal of the band’s 2024 festival costumes, and the first edition of *Toast*, the group’s new pre-festival garden party. Fagan framed the 10-year anniversary as a point of deep pride for the entire organization, reflecting on how the band grew from a small, ambitious idea into a staple of the annual Crop Over lineup.

“What started as a simple vision a decade ago has grown into a band widely recognized for its infectious energy, vibrant atmosphere, and commitment to honoring the core of what Crop Over is all about,” Fagan shared during the event. “Celebrating 10 years this season is a really proud moment for every member of the Zulu International family.”

This year’s official festival theme for the band is “New Dawn”, a title Fagan says carries layered meaning that extends beyond the group’s own milestone. The theme is designed to represent Zulu International’s decade of steady growth, while also mirroring the broader evolution of Crop Over and Caribbean festival culture as a whole, she explained.

“New Dawn stands for growth, evolution, and stepping into a bold new era — that’s true for Zulu, but it’s also true for our culture that we celebrate every year,” Fagan noted. “This moment feels like the perfect time to embrace that change together.”

For festival goers joining Zulu International on the road this season, the band has planned widespread upgrades that elevate every part of the experience, from the design of the celebration costumes to on-the-ground service and the overall crowd atmosphere. Fagan emphasized that the entire team has put in extra work to make the 10th anniversary year unforgettable for all participants, regardless of whether they are first-time revelers or long-time Zulu members.

“Revelers can expect an elevated experience across every single area — stunning hand-designed costumes, improved customer service, and an unmatched, energetic road vibe that you can’t find anywhere else,” Fagan said. “We’re going all out to make this year one for the history books. Whether it’s your first time marching with Zulu or you’ve been part of our journey for years, Zulu is absolutely the place to be this Crop Over.”

The 2024 Zulu International band will be split into five distinct costume sections for this year’s festival: Diamonds, Kalinago, Emerald, Zulu, and Flora, each with its own unique visual design and thematic styling to align with the overarching “New Dawn” theme.

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.