Exchange of culture

The Barbados Celtic Festival 2018 is in full swing celebrating the connections between Barbados and the Celtic countries of Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

A rich cultural exchange of music as well as culinary treats will be shared this week during a slate of events, which also seeks to engage children across the island.

Yesterday, students of Combermere School learned all about the Bagpipes from four young Pipers from the Strathallan School in Scotland, while at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic School students had an interactive hour-long session with a group of Fiddlers who taught them some Scottish songs.

“It is a chance for us to share music across the ocean… For something like this, they are sharing the tunes – learning them here as well as us learning ‘Beautiful Barbados’ back in Scotland. And that way we really get the integration of the music and culture together,” Director of the Barbados Celtic Festival, Carol Anderson, pointed out.

“I believe it is really important to involve our younger people, so they learn from early what the culture is all about, and it grows with them and that influences them and makes them think about music,” it was further pointed out.

The Barbados Celtic Festival dates back to 1990 when Ruth Williams, a Welsh woman, brought her father’s Male Voice Choir over from Wales to perform at the Frank Collymore Hall. Since then many well kent faces in the Scottish, Irish and Welsh as well as Nova Scotia music scenes have travelled to Barbados to take part on the last weekend in May every year.

However, Anderson, who is from Edinburgh, Scotland, took over in 2011.

“My desire is to grow tourism in Barbados through our Festival, so that it helps your economy to grow as well,” she further expressed.

This year’s headline act Hamish Stuart and his band, alongside saxophonist Molly Duncan, will take the stage at the Barbados Yacht Club on May 25. Both are members of the original AWB, the Average White Band, which topped the charts in the USA in 1975 with hits like “Pick Up The Pieces”, “Let’s Go Round Again” and “Work To Do”. (TL)