Montserrat’s other festivals

Montserrat has two major festivals, the year-end Festival in December and the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in March. The year-end Festival is the equivalent of carnival on other Caribbean islands, and features calypso and Festival Queen contests, traditional masquerades, costumed troupe competition, as well as drama, choral singing, dance, steel pan, and the popular “jump ups”. The climax is the colourful parade of troupes on New Year’s Day.

St Patrick’s Day commemorates the slave rebellion on that day many years ago as well as the island’s Irish heritage, and is expanded into a week of cultural activities. These include the Freedom Run road race, the slave village with traditional foods and games, the junior calypso competition organized by the Montserrat Union of Teachers,  and other cultural and fun events.

There’s even a Breadfruit Festival, which is held in September and features a variety of breadfruit dishes which compete for prizes in several categories. This year a breadfruit peeling competition and a breadfruit eating competition were added.

Now the Calabash Festival has been added to the calendar. “Such a festival should stimulate our mental faculties, and really challenge us to see how as a nation we will develop our people to explore the difficulties and challenges and find the opportunities,” said Permanent Secretary Alric Taylor, who chaired the symposium. 

“With the support … of the entire Montserrat community as well as the diaspora”, he said, “we could sustain this initiative, see it grow and flourish into a world class event right here in Montserrat”.