COVID can’t quash the culture: Folklife Festival set to celebrate 30 years

Friends is honored to support the Park’s Folk Life Festival. Extract from an article in the Virgin Islands Daily News. Read full article here.

Two Category 5 hurricanes didn’t stop the Folklife Festival from taking place in February 2018, and a global pandemic won’t stop it this year. Though the festival will look a little different than in years past, there will still be plenty of cultural activities and demonstrations at two locations and in a virtual presentation.

Beginning at 10 a.m. tomorrow at Peace Hill, Glen “Kwabena” Davis will perform storytelling in the sugar mill ruins, Allegra Christopher and the BCCC/UVI Bamboula Club will perform bamboula dancing, and Shandis Davis will be doing mauby-making demonstrations in the Peace Hill parking lot.

Concurrently at Annaberg, the Music Makers will perform quelbe, Loreli Hedrington will do plant and herb demonstrations, Elmo Rabsatt will be doing a presentation on bees, Henry Powell will display historic tools and other implements like the iron goose, Yisrael Petersen will do moko jumbie performances, and plants from the Annaberg garden will be on display.

At both locations, the festival will wrap up at 2 p.m. Students from Gifft Hill School are scheduled to visit the two venues, both of which are also open to the public. Masks must be worn and social distancing will be enforced.

The festival’s virtual component is a one hourlong mini documentary that aired twice on WTJX last weekend, and is now available for viewing at https://vimeo.com/514412512.