Barbados Crop Over Festival: The Most Popular and Colorful Festival

Carnivals are by far the true representation of the culture and the tradition of a particular country, and every year various carnivals are celebrated in different parts of the world. Crop Over Festival of Barbados is one good and lively example of this. The formal name of the carnival is “Harvest Home”, and it is conventionally celebrated as the harvest festival in Barbados. In the year 1688, the tradition of celebrating this carnival was started, characterizing music and dance, which was supplemented by bottles filled with water, fiddle, banjo, guitar, bones, triangle and shak-shak. Apart from this, other traditions include feasting, climbing a greased pole and drinking competitions.

The carnival celebration was initially started to mark the end of the sugarcane harvest, and has since evolved as the largest national festival of Barbados. But, the festival celebration was stopped after the Second World War, due to its harsh after effects that resulted into the decline of sugar industry in Barbados. In 1974, the festival celebration was revived to catch attention of numerous tourists from every corner of the world. Now-a-days, it is celebrated as the fiesta of culture, historic values, music and masquerade. The celebration starts in June and ends on the first Monday in August with The Grand Kadooment. The major features of this two month long carnival are – the Calypso Competition and the Calypso Music. The Calypso music was first originated in Trinidad and uses syncopated rhythm and topical lyrics. Other activities and events of the carnival include

• Calypso Tents 
• Ceremonial delivery of the last canes
• Kiddies Kadooment
• Cohobblopot
• Folk concerts 
• Art and Photographic exhibitions
• The Road March Monarch
• Party Monarch
• The Pic-O-De-Crop Monarch
• The Grand Kadooment

Additionally, to supplement everyday events, there are food tents, craft markets, street parties and cavalcades. Most of the events of this Crop Over Festival are performed in the last five weeks. The battle among the calypsonians for the popular Calypso Monarch Award is the main highlight of the Calypso Tent competition. Other popular competitions of the carnival include People's Monarch and Party Monarch. In People’s Monarch competition, people are given groups of songs (2 songs for each group) and they vote for them, until a winner is chosen out. Conversely, Party Monarch competition is based on the presentation, and the winner is chosen by a panel of judges. Moving ahead, the Cohobblopot event is popular for its perfect mix of dance, drama and music, accompanied by the King and Queen of costume bands. As stated earlier, the carnival ends with The Grand Kadooment event, where the costume bands fill the streets with fireworks and the lively Barbadian rhythm.

Apart from all these widely held events and activities, costumes are the major attractions of this summer festival of Barbados. These costumes are made and designed using wide range of plumes in single shade as well as in beautiful combination of two or three. Fascinating and elaborated costumes are made using pheasant, ostrich, rooster and other bird plumes. All these and various other types of plumes are available for sale on Schuman Feathers, one of the leading wholesale feather suppliers. You can buy top-quality feathers from the website to make attention-grabbing and colorful costumes for the carnival celebration. We offer a wide range of wholesale ostrich feathers, peacock, cocktail, turkey, saddle, hackle, and pheasant feathers.

So, shop for your favorite feathers in bulk in different shades and sizes to make a creatively designed costume for Crop Over Festival of Barbados.