Stakeholders in the 2022 Crop Over Festival have hailed it as a success despite the many challenges faced by the country.
And Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) Carol Roberts-Reifer has emphasised the “mammoth effort” it took to stage the festival in a short time and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She made the comment this morning during a press conference where she was joined by some major participants in the festival who all spoke in glowing terms about the festival.
Roberts-Reifer recalled. “We got word that we could present a concept brief for Crop Over [in] late February. We went to the public led by the minister on March 22, and our first events occurred in May.
“When we all do the calculations we can see what a mammoth effort it took to get to the public both locally, regionally and internationally in such a short space of time. But not only to get there but to get there with a product that by all reports has been heavily endorsed by all participants,” she said during a press conference held at the NCF headquarters.
This morning musical director of the National Youth Steel Orchestra Lowrey Worrell; tent manager of C.O.Williams House of Soca, Sharon Carew-White and curator of the Central Bank Crop Over Visual Arts Exhibition, Oneka Small, were full of praise for this year’s festivities.
Worrell, a music educator, said the pan programme on the island was growing. He said among the 90-member group were some who had been recruited through the Pan in the Schools programme, which was initiated this year by the NCF.
He described Pandemonium, which took place at the National Botanical Gardens, as an “amazing event” which surpassed even his expectations.
“The pan programme is growing. From out of Pandemonium we have had persons who have called and have started in the beginner’s programme because they liked what they saw,” he said.
Additionally, he said other countries including Canada and Trinidad and Tobago had reached out to praise the event.
Worrell called for investment from the private sector in providing more pans to the programme.
Carew-White, whose tent produced the 2022 calypso monarch Quon, as well as Tune of the Crop winner Brucelee Almightee, said she was pleased with the support of the public throughout the festival.
She congratulated the NCF for allowing artistes to use the Pelican Recording Studio, describing it as a “brilliant” initiative which allowed artistes an opportunity to be recorded and to be heard.
“It meant that their music got to transcend to a lot more persons,” she said.
Meanwhile, Small, who oversaw a Season of Emancipation Visual Arts Series, said she was happy to see that visual arts had been included in a major way in the festival. She said it provided a large number of artists with the opportunity to showcase their work.
“There was a strong feeling of inclusion of the visual arts within the festival. We were part of events and we really felt included. A lot of the time visual arts tend to be on the outside but definitely Crop Over 2022 there would have been a great level of inclusion,” Small said.
Marketing officer at the NCF, Ashley Dyall revealed that social media had been widely used during the festival. She reported that significant interest had been shown by both Barbadians and persons living abroad.
Dyall said 6 700 persons watched the folk concert online, 113 000 viewed Grand Kadooment, 30 000 watched Junior Monarch while 29 000 viewed Pandemonium, suggesting there was a high level of interest in the festival. (RB)
Article above by Randy Bennett first appeared in BARBADOS TODAY ONLINE Published on September 1, 2022
Minister with responsibility for Culture in the Prime Minister’s Office, Senator Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight. 
