Bridgetown Market and Grand Kadooment

Saturday evening I went to a popular event for the Crop Over Season called 'Bridgetown Market' in Spring Gardens. Before I went to the event, I heard the ad for it, and the announcer said it would have 250 stalls.

I was like Pfft...Yeah right.

So we found a park, and made our way into the Bridgetown Market. The first thing I noticed was Kensington Oval.

Kensington Oval

Outside the stadium, some people were lining up to go inside. I knew some cricket  matches were going on; and I wanted to go to the Trinidad and Tobago versus Barbados match, but I figured it would have been the next day. By the time I got home after Bridgetown Market and the TV was broadcasting the cricket match; it turned out that it was T&T vs Barbados at the oval, and T&T was losing pretty badly too; they made only 52 runs after batting first -_-

But anyway, walking in I saw stalls on either side of the highway.

View of the highway and its many stalls

There were lots of craft items, food stuff, and other items like inflated balloons, toys and such. On the field opposite the highway, there were some jewellery, paintings and cultural displays.

Traditional Bread Cart

There was also a fashion show going on, with great African print outfits on display. Afterward, I bought a fantastic pistachio ice-cream from BICO Ltd, and I also sampled sorrel wine and breadfruit wine from a company called Shalana's.

Varieties of wines at Shalana's

The sorrel wine was delicious; the breadfruit wine was really strong, but both were great! I also had some really great smoked chicken :D. And yes there definitely 250 stalls for the event!

On Monday 5th August was Grand Kadooment, which is the last big hoorah before the end of Crop Over 2013. The word 'Kadooment' I heard means 'letting go' and 'freeing up oneself'; which is very fitting for what takes place on that day. It's similar to Carnival Tuesday in Trinidad; but the difference in Barbados is that they pass through the National Stadium, and then through the streets of down town Barbados.

We sat at a spot in Black Rock, and watched the bands parade through the streets.

Masqueraders walking in the street

What I've noticed with Kadooment is that the bands are much smaller, and the costumes were basically all the same, which is the direction Trinidad's Carnival is taking; basically with beach outfits and beads and feathers. Also with the parade in the street, there was a half an hour up to an hour wait between each band procession, which I think is way too long; I expected a continuous stream of masqueraders, but it wasn't that way at all for the rest of the day. But the music was so great; even though there were half-naked drunk people everywhere.

Masqueraders up on de big truck

Drunk dude clearly wanted a picture, lol.

After leaving town, all I wanted to do was go to the beach, but we got back home too late :/

But definitely next time.

Really cool band from Martinique, drumming!

Two bands stood out to me, and they were from Martinique, not only because of their costumes, but also their amazing drumming! It was really different and fresh.

Below are just some of the couple hundred pictures I had taken for Grand Kadooment, before taking a cold shower and watch an episode of Suits.

:)