Every Easter weekend sees the opening of The Oistins Fish Festival, which is held in the historic fishing town of Oistins, which is located on the south coast of Barbados.
Oistins saw the battle between the Royalists and the Roundheads in 1639, and resulted in the Articles of Agreement being drawn up to form the Barbadian Government, which is the third oldest in the Commonwealth.
The Oistins Fish Festival will in 2007 celebrate its 30th anniversary, this year the event has been extended and will run from Tuesday April 3rd until Monday April 10th.
The 2007 festival was opened with a church service held at Church of Christ led by Minister Arlington Pinder-Marshall. The service recognized the work of Oistins Fisher folk Committee and the fisherman who have made the event such a success over the last 30 years and gave thanks and praise for the fishing community with singing and worship.
The festival is a celebration of fishermen and their skills where fresh fish is cooked, the fisherman show off their skills, music is played, karaoke enjoyed and a fun time is had by all!
Spectators can enjoy watching the fishermen race their boats, see who is the quickest to de-bone a fish and you can see the 'Greasy Pole' competition, where a $100 note is placed at the top of a very greasy pole and all the fisherman try their hand to see who can make it up the pole and collect the $100!
On Tuesday April 3rd 2007 from 7pm to 9pm Bank Breweries Steel Orchestra will perform, then on Wednesday April 4 2007 from 7pm to 9.0pm there will be a cultural programme featuring St. Bartholomew Steel Orchestra & Christ Church Foundation Pop Band.
On Thursday April 5th the cultural programme will highlight a local artist. On Saturday April 7th at 11am there will be the Road Tennis Final for both men and women held at Supercentre JB's in Sargeant's Village. At 1.30pm the Grease Pole Competition will take place in the boatyard of the Oistin's Market. At 4.30pm there will be the Opening Ceremony and Award Ceremony, then from 7.30pm until 9.0pm the Digicel Cultural Programme presents performances from Contone and Lil Rick.
On Sunday April 8 from 7pm until 10pm there will be The Kentucky Fried Chicken Gospel Concert featuring Sister Marshal and Abundant Life Mass Choir. On Monday April 9 from 6am there will be the Banks Breweries 10K Run and the Jerome Walcott 10k Walk, which starts at Queen's Park, and will come along Highway 7 and end at Oistin's. At 11am there will be the Federal Bookmaker's Boat Race and at 1pm the SuperCentre Fish Cook-off Competition. From 3pm until 4pm there will be Barbados Landship in Concert and at 4.30pm you can see the First Caribbean International Dolphin Skinning Competition, then at 5.30pm there is the Chefette Restaurant Fish Boning Competition and at 6.30pm there will be the Grease Pole Competition reprise. Finally at 7pm until 10pm there will be the Cultural Presentation/Grand Finale, which will feature Trevor Eastmond and others.
The streets are lined with vendors selling everything from children's toys, local art & crafts and of course there is quite a lot of cooked fish to buy as well!
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