In another age, the fact that the pastel vendors’ huts and the stage at Marsh Harbour’s Goombay Park survived Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, despite the fact that they are at the harbour’s edge where the greatest storm surges occurred, would be interpreted as a good omen indicating that the Goombay Festival is blessed to remain a part of Abaco’s cultural landscape.
The festival, which has become synonymous with summer, kicks off this Friday, June 17 and runs every other Friday through August 26 at the park on the western side of the Port of Marsh Harbour.
The theme of this year’s festival is “Celebrating the Diverse Heritage of the Abacos,” chosen for the purpose of showcasing the “many cultural influences and the diversity of the mainland and the cays,” according to a press statement issued by Indira Edwards, public relations officer at the Ministry of Tourism’s Abaco office, which organizes the annual event.
“Unlike previous years,” said Ms. Edwards, “the festival has something new and exciting every week, including Abaco Superstars Night, Down Home Night and International Night.”
According to Ms. Edwards, Abaco Superstars Night will feature such outstanding Abaconian musicians as Nehemiah Hield of BahaMen, Eugene Davis, Jay Mitchell and Colin McDonald. Down Home Night will feature such icons of Bahamian music as Ronnie Butler and Count Bernadino, as well as such traditional artistic forms as rake-n-scrape music with Ophie and the Boys and quadrille dancing with the Back Street Quadrille Dancers.
International Night will focus on two distinct cultures, according to Ms. Edwards ﾗ Haitian and American ﾗ featuring their foods, music and other expressions of their customs.
The opening festival will run from 6 to 11 p.m. Friday, reinstating the event’s strict hours, with performances by the Royal Bahamas Police Force Marching and Pop Bands. Other musical performances will be rendered by the Impact Band of Murphy Town and the Spring City Rockers Junkanoo Group.
There will also be the usual Goombay features of fire and limbo dancers, as well as a Goombay dance competition. Other activities, which will be featured on all of the festival nights, will include crafts stalls, hair braiding, as well as a variety of foods, including such seasonal favourites as baked crab and crab and rice. The popular Kids’ Corner will also return.
Goombay, a Bahamian form of music that distinguishes it from Trinidadian Calypso and other forms of Caribbean folk music inspired by African rhythm, takes its name from the “Gimbey,” or big drum in certain West African parlance, or, as has evolved in the creation of Bahamian anchor rhythms, the goatskin drums.
Goombay Park was the brainchild of Don Cornish, former head of the Abaco Tourist Office, and Yvonne Key, outgoing chairperson of the Marsh Harbour/Spring City Township Committee.
By RICHARD E. FAWKES, Freeport News
