In 1983 the Barbadian government passed an act of Parliament to establish a statuary body to celebrate the culture of Barbados and so The National Cultural Foundation (NCF) was born.
The NCF provide grants and awards to help performers showcase their talent and under their remit are three of the largest festivals held in Barbados each year.
These are Cropover, Congaline and the National Independence Festival of Creative Art (NIFCA).
Cropover is a traditional celebration, which was started by African slaves to celebrate the end of the sugar harvest; a time to celebrate that all their hard work and labour of cutting sugar cane had come to an end. With this African influence, Crop Over is very much focussed on music and dance.
Congaline is held at the Dover Playing Fields at the end of St. Lawrence Gap, on the south coast of the island, usually on the last weekend in April. It is three night event, starting on Friday with World Music Night, then Saturday night is usually Reggae night with top acts from around the world performing, and Sunday night is Calypso music performed live by the regions top acts.
NIFCA is the awards festival for all arts that are deemed creative such as culinary, theatre, drama, and literary. The month long event is held in November each year.
The NCF is also responsible for showcasing Barbadian talent around the Caribbean region and puts together the Barbadian representatives for Carifesta, which covers music, drama, arts and literary performers.
For further information log onto www.ncf.bb |
