VINP’s annual Folk Life Festival provides walk through memory lane

Daily News Staff / Feb 26, 2022

ST. JOHN — Students from Gifft Hill School got to walk through memory lane, getting the chance to learn about broom making, bread baking and entertaining — simply by blowing in a conch shell — as part of the annual Folk Life Festival sponsored by Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park.

The two-day event, kicked off Thursday at Pine Peace basketball court, where students from Julius E. Sprauve School and St. John Christian Academy attended. It culminated Friday at Gifft Hill School.

During the festival, students get to view or take part in many cultural demonstrations that range from broom making and cooking to arts and crafts.

On Friday, a group of third-grade students from Gifft Hill School took turns playing marbles or sifting through a sand box. They also sat around listening to storytellers during the event, when they were not enjoying native fare including guava and coconut tarts and passion fruit and tamarind drinks — all made from fruits that can be found growing in the Virgin Islands.

According to Friends website, the festival “celebrates and promotes the rich culture of the Virgin Islands every February, Black History Month.”

This year marked the 31st year of the festival and V.I. National Park Superintendent Nigel Fields used the occasion to reflect on its purpose and thanked the culture bearers, performers and artists who participate annually.

The festival, Fields said, helps “share our park through the lens of this vibrant Caribbean culture, so you may see, imagine and experience the lifeways of an indomitable people.”

Photo: Gifft Hill School