Festival Cancellation

PRESS RELEASE

2020 CROP OVER AND THE NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE FESTIVAL OF CREATIVE ARTS

Sunday, April 19, 2020

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The Cabinet of Barbados at its meeting of Thursday, April 16th approved a recommendation of the Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports to cancel the 2020 Crop Over Festival and National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA).

This decision was made in light of ongoing global efforts to contain and manage the COVID – 19 pandemic as well as Government’s negative short term projections for the local economy, regional and international travel and trade and weakened public confidence in attending mass gatherings in the current environment and immediately thereafter.

Cabinet further agreed that the Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports, through the National Cultural Foundation will replace the two major festivals this year with a national training programme in schools and communities, and a wide-reaching campaign to both fund and produce radio, television and digital content that will be accessible across multiple delivery channels including the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation.

The Ministry of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports remains committed to its mission of the creation of opportunities in the cultural industries and in pursuit of this objective the National Cultural Foundation will shortly convene a series of stakeholder consultations to discuss ways in which cultural practitioners can participate in, and benefit from, the programmes identified to replace Crop Over and NIFCA.