With just days to go before Barbados celebrates the climax of Crop Over, all eyes are on Grand Kadooment. On Monday, thousands of masqueraders will take to the streets in a colourful parade that brings the festival season to a close.
The tradition dates back to 1687, when Harvest Home celebrations marked the end of the sugar cane harvest. After months of labour in the fields, plantation workers celebrated with music, dancing and street processions.
Early parades featured workers carrying the last canes of the harvest, followed by a cart bearing Mr Harding, an effigy made from old clothes stuffed with cane trash. The figure symbolised the hardships endured between harvests and was burned at the end of the festivities.
Traditional characters including Mother Sally, Shaggy Bear and the Stilt Men were also part of the celebrations, accompanied by musicians playing banjos, fiddles, triangles and shak-shaks.
Although the festival is more than 300 years old, it ended in 1943 because of the Second World War and the decline of the sugar industry. It was revived in 1974 as a national festival, and responsibility for its development passed to the National Cultural Foundation in 1983.
Today, Grand Kadooment is held on the first Monday in August, a national holiday in Barbados. The name Kadooment is derived from a Bajan term meaning a large, joyful celebration, making it a fitting finale to Crop Over.
Bands participating in this year’s Grand Kadooment include:
- Aura Experience
- Betty West Productions
- Colorz Entertainment
- Envy Mas
- Khepri Kulture
- Krave the Band
- Passion Vybz Kadooment Band
- Zulu International
- Vida by Esquire
- Mọndé Mas
- Blue Box Cart
- Baje International
