Vote for Crop Over

Barbados in Contest on International Media Platform

Barbados has been given an opportunity to receive international accolades after USA Today, one of the widest circulated American daily newspapers, teamed up with trusted travel and lifestyle advice website 10Best.com—a division of USA Today—for an online awards competition.

In this respect, Barbados’ flagship festival, Crop Over, has been highlighted by the USA Today/10Best Readers’ Choice Awards and is currently vying for the ‘Best Caribbean Celebration’ honour.

The Crop Over Festival is one of 20 choices on the website after having been chosen by the publications’ panel of travel experts and is up against other familiar celebratory occasions of varied interests and tastes such as Antigua Sailing Week, Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, Bahamas’ Junkanoo, Jamaica’s Reggae Sumfest, Aruba’s Soul Beach Music Festival, St. Lucia’s Jazz & Arts Festival and the Dominican Republic’s Fiesta de Merengue.

The advent of this competition is giving Barbadians at home and in the Diaspora, along with fans of the Crop Over Festival around the world, the chance to make sure that Barbados is determined the winner by popular vote. Voting is now open and ends on Monday, July 7, 2014 at 11:59 a.m.The public can vote once per day until that deadline.

The website, which has asserted that “the only thing better than being in the Caribbean is being there during a classic regional celebration,” will reveal the top ten Caribbean Celebrations on July 7, when only one nominated celebration will take the ‘Best Caribbean Celebration’ title. Barbados is presently in third position behind Aruba’s Soul Beach Music Festival and current leader, Bahamas’ Junkanoo.

Chief Executive Officer of the National Cultural Foundation, Mr. Cranston Browne, urged all Barbadians to use their computers, smart phones and other smart devices to log on and vote and also noted that the competition “allows Barbados to target both traditional and non-traditional tourist markets.”

He then added that the award would place the Crop Over Festival on an internationally-known publicity platform, due to the worldwide popularity of both USA Today and 10Best.

Browne is additionally impressing upon the public to share the existence of this contest with their friends, family and work colleagues as well as through all their social channels so as to garner as many votes possible to bring home the top spot in celebration of the 40^th Anniversary of the Crop Over Festival.

Log onto http://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-caribbean-celebration/ and let us show the world why our beloved Crop Over Festival is the ‘Sweetest Summer Festival. Get voting!