Minister Defends Crop Over Festival and Emphasizes Cultural Investments

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Culture Senator Shantal Munro-Knight has staunchly defended this year’s Crop Over festival against public criticism, claiming it could be considered one of the best.

She used the Barbados Labour Party’s Christ Church East branch’s annual general meeting on Sunday to respond to the backlash over what some have dubbed a lacklustre conclusion to the festival’s 50th-anniversary celebrations.

“They’re calling for my head; they’re calling for the CEO [of the NCF Carol Robert’s] head; they say it is the worst Crop Over,” she said. “Yet we had the best and biggest Soca 5.0 that everybody has said was the best show of the season.”

The minister expressed disappointment at the public’s focus on high-profile events as the primary measure of cultural success.

“The single lens through which we view culture and the work that the Division of Culture and the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) is doing . . . We see Crop Over, and we see four single events. We see the Pic-o-de-Crop finals, the same Soca 5.0. And in our minds, unfortunately, that is Crop Over,” she declared.

“Stripping away the single lens, people,” she said. “And I say that to you because, very fundamentally, the issue of culture is not just about what we see. It is not just about the parade of Kadooment.”

Senator Munro-Knight highlighted lesser-known NCF initiatives, including investments in primary schools and costume-making training.

“What that lens does not show . . . is the investment the NCF has made in primary schools across Barbados. It doesn’t show the investment that we have made to train tutors in costume making so that they then go back into the primary schools.”

She noted that many Junior Kadooment costumes were created by schoolchildren themselves, with NCF support.

“Why? Because we start within the school system because we are building vision,” the minister declared.

The minister also pointed to the foundation’s efforts to support young women in music production.

“The NCF for the first time supported young women to be able to write and produce music,” she said. “So all of that music that you are seeing out there featuring young men, supported by the national, teaching young women, supported by the NCF as part of what the Crop Over festival. Developmental.”

Calling for a broader perspective on cultural development, Senator Munro-Knight emphasised the government’s commitment to using culture as a tool for social development and unity.

“Culture is a way for us to be able to lift society up. It is a way by which we can create a unity of purpose,” she said. “It is a way through its development ethos, again, that those very same young men and young women can see purpose and have creative expression.”