The Tribune

WHEN Commonwealth Brewery bosses gathered round a table to figure out a meaningful way to celebrate this year’s 25th anniversary of Kalik they decided they wanted to marry it with the 40th Anniversary of Independence celebrations in The Bahamas.

“It was the word ‘celebrate’ that inspired us,” said Kalik brand manager Jannifer Thurston.

“Somebody said ‘festival’ and someone else said, it’s national, all the islands have to be represented and someone else said, ‘and it has to be family-oriented’,” she said.

An idea was born - a one-day, family feast of fun, food, dance, music, and culture for all the islands with a massive “cultural explosion” in Nassau.

That was nearly a year ago.

On Saturday, June 29, that idea will come to fruition with Bahamians and visitors expected to flock to the Botanical Gardens opposite Fish Fry for The Festival of the Bahama Islands - a ten-hour extravaganza of all things Bahamian.

It includes live performances, music, dance, crafts and foods from the islands, all representing elements of traditional Bahamian life.

Demonstrations and performances begin at noon. Among them are Robert Bain teaching quadrille dancing and Anitra Colebrooke teaching the art of crab catching.

Thurston said: “We were fortunate because we were able to get Anitra to do the demonstration and if ever you saw a woman who makes catching crab fun and exciting it’s her.”

Robert Bain said: “Telling stories through dance and movement has been a part of Bahamian heritage for centuries. The first time I saw the quadrille performed was in 1983 by the Cat Island Mites and I got goose bumps.

“The tradition goes back hundreds of years. The slaves saw the masters perform the social dances and took it back to the field slaves who started to mimic the dance and create the same sounds that they heard.”

In addition to Junkanoo costume making, straw plaiting, plaiting the maypole, cascarilla bark demo, bush tea and other demonstrations, there will be music and dance throughout the day, leading off with the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the legendary Lassie Doh Boys and a special performance organized by musician Fred Ferguson celebrating the past 40 years of Bahamian music.

The hour-and-a-half long performance by local band Tingum Dem will include familiar tunes that have rocked The Bahamas from 1973 until now.

Ferguson said it was a chance for The Bahamas to connect and recollect - with music and experiences that have “defined a generation of independent Bahamians”.

Doors open at 10am with the celebration’s official kick-off at 12pm.

Tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for children for a full day of family-friendly fun. For more information about the Festival of The Bahama Islands, contact 397-1452 or 397-1429.

• WHAT are you doing to celebrate the 40th anniversary? Email newsroom@tribunemedia.net or call 502 2366.