Barbados’ 2022 Crop Over Festival Officially Launches on 2 July at Portvale Sugar Factory
by Karen Rollins Jun 23, 2022
Barbados’ Crop Over Festival 2022 officially opens on 2 July with the Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes.
This symbolic event is the public launch of the island’s festival season and this year it will take place at the Portvale Sugar Factory in St James. Admission is free.
The ceremony begins at 2pm with a procession to commemorate the Season of Emancipation starting at Rock Hall Freedom Park, the site of the first free village.
After arriving at Portvale, patrons will be treated to a guided tour of the factory and enjoy the process of “making sugar”. There will also be re-enactments and a re-imagining of life on a sugar plantation.
A ‘Sugar Mek it Sweet’ heritage fair will be offering ‘everything Bajan’ culinary experiences and arts and craft.
In the evening, some of the island’s best veteran calypsonians will entertain attendees and pay homage to the Pic-O-De-Crop musical art form at the ‘Vintage Calypso Tent’.
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Crop Over is a cultural celebration of Barbados’ African and British heritage and its 300-year-old association with the sugar industry. It involves six weeks of fetes, music competitions, and fairs and culminates in a carnival-style ‘jump-up’ on Grand Kadooment Day.
