What is a Festival?

Dictionary: Feasting day or time; time of celebrating, merrymaking.

In the context of our country and the occasions of traditional festivals events or occasions of national or general public celebrating there are about five (5) such celebrating times. Some are big and more generally recognized some are small and very localized.

Carnival
This event occurs between end June and 1st week July. Its features Steel pan, Calypso, & Mas in competition/ shows. Carnival Development Corporation (CDC) organizes it. A major feature is the general public joining the costumed bands in a “free for all” street dancing after the costume bands have been judged.

Christmas (with Nine Mornings)
This event occurs at end December. The day itself is in honor of the birth of Jesus. Generally the activities that are structured are those involving Christian churches. There is much commercial enterprise and unstructured family type celebration. Nine Mornings is an unique Vincentian preparation for Christmas. It has evolved over time and effort is being made to ensure the tradition does not die by turning it into a full festival program. Much of its appeal is in holding the activities in the early hours of a morning.

Easter (with Regatta & Easterval)
This event celebrate Christ’s rising from the dead. It is similar to Christmas. The initial structured events are Christian church services. Over time sailing events, which were part of the holiday, have been organizing more fully and form part of a broader celebration. At the same time parallel activity involving calypso and beauty competition has developed. Presently two programs are staged independent of each other.

All Souls
This event is a remembrance of dead relatives and friends. It is a combination of partially remembered African traditions of ancestor worship and of a Catholic focus of prayer for departed souls. It has developed in resent times to a wider public gathering occasion in rural communities. Special attention is the general cleaning of cemeteries and the decoration of graves. On the night in question people gather in the cemeteries and tell stories and reminisce on the lives of the departed. Some communities have live drumming or play recorded music.

Maroon or Big Drum
This event is now localized to Union Island. It occurs at the end of the dry season and consists of community presentation of traditional dances in response to a vision and spontaneous assembly

Performance Festivals:
There are also the festivals arising from focusing on performing arts achievements. This type of festival is slightly artificial in that it does not arise from a particular tradition activity base but is a staged event for presenting and rewarding performers. These festivals occur at times decided by the organizers.

They are:

• Primary School Performing Arts Festival
• Schools Drama Festival
• Community Drama Festival
• National Dance Festival
• National Musical Festival
• Gospel Fest

By Gideon Buntyn

The history of Carnival in SVG covers about 6 different periods. They are: 1) the pre 1890’s; 2) the 1900’s to 1940’s; 3) the 1947 to 1961; 4) the 1962 to 1976; 5) the 1977 to 1999 and one anticipates 6) a 2000 and beyond period.

The pre 1890’s:
Here Carnival is one day. The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is a party to say farewell to sin as one begins the period of lent with its fasts and prayer. Most people kept the Lenten period. During lent there was no loud behaviour of any sought. Calypso was not yet invented.

The 1900’s to 1940’s:
Appears to still be mostly only one day. The new development is calypso. A lead singer of a string band or bum drum group provided entertainment by commentary or humor on some ordinary personage. The elite of society were not considered as proper subject matter to be in these songs. Certainly no singer could win the pole for a song, which made upstanding citizens the butt of the joke. The predominant costumes were the Boosie Back, Monkey band with Kong, and other painter body variants and the Winning Donkey Man. It may also be fair to say the worker class only indulged in by the worker class.

The period 1947 to 1961:
Carnival grows and evolves. The costumes reflect historical and literary themes and sometimes attempts to tell stories and educate. The calypso too has more lyrical structure and musical accompaniment is now big band. However the most startling major new thing is steel band. The main organizing body to carry the lead beginning in the 1950’s was the Kingstown Town Board.

The period 1962 to 1976:
This period owes much to the work of the Jaycees who were the organizing body up till 1973. It saw the shaping of what we think of as carnival. There was pan especially the grand Panorama competition. Mas in all splendors catering for young and not so young. Electronic music, calypso tents giving shows leading up to semifinals, and a carnival queen whose costume appearance was as much a factor for her winning as her personal beauty and her gown.

The period 1977 to 2000:
Though there may be sub parts to the period its noteworthiness comes from it being the summer festival era. Vincy Mas time; fun in the July sun. A change of date and an official 10-day celebration period. Management by CDC. Introduction of Street Bars. The addition of shows such as the Junior Calypso, Miss Carival, Soca Monarch, and Clash of the Band.

• Sharing & documenting information.
• Providing training in areas of the performing arts.
• Collaborating with relevant stakeholders to organize and host events.
• Planning assistance to groups and institutions.

The Department also has a significant role of supervising, coordinating, and interfacing with the national cultural institutions and channelling Government’s policy and financial support to and through them. In addition to the CDC, the other major cultural institutions are, the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), The National Trust and the Peace Memorial Hall Committee.

The National Cultural Foundation is mandated to focus on intangible areas of culture and is pursuing a “developmental focus” directed to the groups and individuals active in arts. It also deals with general research & documentations. The National Trust handles tangible heritage, focusing on preservation of sites, buildings and artifacts and other such related areas. The Peace Memorial Hall Committee is responsible for the management of the Peace Memorial Hall, assisting groups with “front of house” services for productions held at the Hall.