For some who are intrigued by the history from medieval times, revelry and merriment were not without their downsides; there were always social and political costs. When kingdoms drowned in gluttonous feasts (fetes), as we refer to them in modern day, indiscipline and mismanagement were the consequences.
The Second Estate of the Realm – today’s government – became blind to famines, attacks from others, and societal decay. Drunken nobles made poor decisions, distracted by poor advice. A feel good public intoxicated by the merriment was the ‘salve’ deployed to comfort the masses, while the outflow from the treasury (Consolidated Fund) flowed like the river Jordan. There was corruption (white collar especially) which fuelled decadence.
The 2026 Crop Over season was widely reported as a success – by all reports—not least our young de facto Minister of Culture Mr. Shane Archer -it was a success, a good time was had by all. Although there is room to improve. If success was measured by the number of fetes staged, record numbers attending events, yes. By the number of ‘dutty’ lyrics in songs being normalised by our young people, yes. By generating earned media with The Right Excellent Robyn Rihanna Fenty participating in the festival, yes.
A comprehensive review of Crop Over 2026 is to be undertaken in the coming weeks, the culture minister overseeing his first festival said on Tuesday, amid what has been hailed as one of the festival’s strongest editions in recent years. But he acknowledged there was still work to be done to increase participation and ensure the island’s premier cultural celebration continues to evolve – Source: BT
What should be obvious, Crop Over is not a vehicle to nurture and propagate Barbados traditional culture. We are prepared to become immersed in relativism. Even before the post mortem as the Minister has promised is completed, Rudy Maloney, president of the Entertainment Association of Barbados has lamented the lack of venues to facilitate a demand for staging more fetes. Notably, a couple of actors in the festival noted that in the festival that ‘burning Mr. Harding’ was included in activities to add colour and bring historical context to the offering.
Given where we are today, it does not require mental dexterity to imagine what will be the future state of things in Barbados. We have become a people where feting and merriment is a national imperative. For fodder, consider the calypsonian who won the flagship competition, he used a motif about a counterpart, now deceased, from another country. The majority of bands on Kadooment Day could have been mistaken for smaller versions of those parading in Brazil’s carnaval. Foreday Morning resembled Trinidad’s J’ouvert, and so on.
Barbadians so easily assimilate the norms and practices of others. A trip to New York, London and other cities, Jamaican, Haitian, and Trinidadian ‘hangouts’ can be found without effort, a little harder to locate Bajan ‘spots’. Let us exclude Chefette, which was transported to New York recently by the government to support a Bajan hype exercise.
If we accept that Crop Over is a vehicle to boost visitor arrivals and foreign exchange, we are doing good. If we want to expand the mandate by ring fencing our culture and Bajan identity, deepening a wider Barbadian participation- then we must wheel and come again.
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