‘Favourites’ may return to festival

The net-throwing competition and the boat race may be making their return to Oistins Fish Festival next year.

Incoming co-chairs of the festival committee, Liesel Daisley and Susanne Downes, yesterday said the fisherfolk-favourite games were something they hoped to bring back when they were in charge of planning the event in 2027.

“We really want to go back to the basics, to the community of what the festival is . . . [and] bring back some of the indigenous things that made the festival – like the fishing village, throwing the net, having the moses [boat] races, having the big boat races, getting really back into it.

“This is what the festival is. For 50 years this is who we were, this is how we’ve grown but we really want to get a lot more of that. We also want to involve the elders who are still around who can tell us about all these things and involve the fisherfolk more than they are involved right now,” Downes said.

Daisley said vending was currently receiving much of the emphasis but they wanted to make a change and spearhead an even bigger and better festival next year, building on the excellent work by the current committee.

“We want to draw crowds from all over, not just from the Christ Church area but we want people from St George, St James, St Lucy, to come down. So it is our mission to make it more exciting, more attractive. We want to also create an area where local businesses can take advantage of the festival, promote their business and generate some income. Because the more people that you are able to attract, then the more exposure your business gets and the more sales you’re able to generate,” she said.

The official launch of the 2026 Flow Oistins Fish Festival featured a ribbon-cutting by patron Stella Lady St John and Member of Parliament for Christ Church South, Dr Shantal Munro-Knight. There was also the ceremonial parade featuring the Boy Scouts, Girl Guides, Cadet Corps, Dancin’ Africa, Haynesville Youth Club, St George Lions, Barbados Landship, Cheer Fusion Academy, the Mini Queens and folk characters such as stilt walkers, fire dancers and shaggy bears.

Paid tribute

In her address, Munro-Knight, the Minister of Agriculture, paid tribute to Lady St John and the organisers. She said the festival was about more than entertainment.

“This festival is very much a reflection of the people of this area. It is very much a reflection of the hard-working men and women, the fisherfolk, those that operate within the Oistins Bay Garden that is celebrating 30 years as well of operation; ordinary men and women who have made this area their own through their own sweat and blood and have continued to do so with a level of pride and dignity that we all should acknowledge.

“I’ve had the privilege to be able to walk through the constituency and to be able to talk to them and there is something about this festival for them, when you hear them talk about their own vision for it, the reason why it needs to stay and to be able to grow. It is because they feel connected to it, that there is history in the festival, and I want to encourage all of us Barbadians . . . to recommit to these traditions, to this festival,” she said.

Munro-Knight encouraged the public to continue to support the festival because it was participation which ensured it would live on. (CA)

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