Take an island that revels in rum, a dash of Irish heritage, add a sea of green and you’ve got yourself a Crucian St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Each year on the Saturday closest to St. Patrick’s Day, revelers adorned in green flood the streets of downtown Christiansted dancing, singing and celebrating the popular Irish holiday infused with Crucian culture.
Many are often surprised to learn that St. Croix is home to one of the largest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in the Caribbean. The Irish Caribbean Heritage stems from the 1700s when sugar production was prevalent throughout the region. Under Danish rule, Irish descendants from neighboring islands moved to St. Croix to develop sugar plantations on the island’s fertile land.
The St. Croix St. Patrick’s Day Parade started in 1969 when group of local businessmen got together at a popular watering hole in downtown Christiansted. Their conversation turned to holiday celebrations where they questioned why St. Patrick’s Day wasn’t celebrated inthe Virgin Islands. They decided at that moment that something MUST be done to remedy this dilemma. From there, the first St. Patrick’s Day Parade on St. Croix was born. With a stake-bed truck outfitted with piano on top, the newly organized committee and fellow supporters hopped on board the slow-moving structure singing Irish and local songs while saluting shoppers and shopkeepers along the route. Those donning their green gear immediately got into the spirit, while those who needed something green rushed into the nearby shops to find the appropriate attire to join in on the fun. In present day festivities, local majorette groups, high school bands and carnival troupes parade through the streets to pay homage to their Irish Caribbean Heritage on an island brimming with Armstrong’s, O’Bryan’s, O’Neale’s and O’Reilly’s.
The 2023 St. Croix St. Patrick’s Day Parade took place on Saturday, March 18th. The parade kicked off in downtown Christiansted at Sunday Market Square and travels along Company Street and King Street. For all the latest information about the parade, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/stxstpats.org.
Article written by Anquanette Gaspard (agaspard@cruzanfoodie.com) for Coldwell Banker, St. Croix Realty
Agrifest 2023’s focus was locally made and homegrown products. Attendees at VI’s largest agricultural festival gathered on February 18-20, at the Rudolph Shulterbrandt Agricultural Complex in Estate Lower Love, St. Croix and experienced a good sampling of food, drinks, music, clothing, and crafts made right in the territory.
Agrifest 2023 featured Farmer of the Year award presentations, prize-winning animals, games and competitions. Entertainment will include quadrille dancing by the Heritage Dancers and performances by the Ay Ay Cultural Dancers, We Deh Yah Cultural Dancers, Guardians of Culture, Mocko Jumbies, and Ay Ay Masqueraders, VIO International, Rising Stars Youth Steel Pan Orchestra, the 73rd Army Band and others. This year’s festival also honored Willard John, a master moko jumbie.
One of our favorites is the Farmer’s Market Pavilion booths which provided a wide and abundant variety of plants, flowers, produce, honey, jams, and other goods.
St Croix Source has a number of videos with interviews, the 73rd Army Band performance, the Ay Ay Cultural Dancers, a walkthrough at the Livestock Pavilion and the Farmer’s Market, and much more. We recommend you to view them here and here.
St. Croix’s ever popular Agriculture and Food Fair, also known as Agrifest, has returned with its 51st installment and back to its former glory! Since 1971, this three-day agricultural festival has attracted attendees from all over the world to the island to experience everything rooted in agriculture from locally grown fruits and vegetables to livestock, arts and crafts and local cuisine. Agrifest has returned to its original February dates which occur over President’s Day weekend. In prior years, devastating hurricanes and the recent global pandemic resulted in the event being postponed to Memorial Day weekend. The 2023 Agrifest will take place from Saturday, February 18th through Monday, February 20th at the Rudolph Shulterbrandt Agricultural Complex in Estate Lower Love. This year’s theme is “Agriculture: Growing Today for Tomorrow…You, Me, All Ah We… in 2023.” As food security becomes an important topic withing the Virgin Islands community, the theme shines a light on our need to focus on food sovereignty for locals and residents of the territory.
The rich, cultural experiences of St. Croix’s AgriFest are centered around the four F’s: food, fun, family and friends. Upon entry onto the fairgrounds, a myriad of captivating sights and invigorating smells welcome you with spirited delight. On the west side of the fairgrounds in the main exhibition hall is where the farmers market is held. This is where attendees will see an assortment of fruits, vegetables and spices with an assortment of plants on display and many available for sale. Several exhibits sponsored by local schools, youth groups, the Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture, and the US Department of Agriculture can also be found on display.
There is no shortage of fun activities for Agrifest-goers. The livestock exhibits feature goats, chickens, rabbits and peacocks. Stop in at the petting zoo for an up-close-and-personal time with island wildlife, have your little one ride a donkey or enjoy one of the carnival rides for an extra dose of fun. Give your ears a treat with the sweet-sounding tunes from local musicians performing throughout the day and learn something new at any of the informational booths throughout the fairgrounds educating attendees on a variety of agriculture-focused topics.
“This is a true Virgin Islands reunion,” said U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture Commissioner Positive T.A. Nelson. “This is where you see it all – our traditions, our food, and our people.” Get your fill of local delicacies: one-pot dishes like kalalloo, red peas soup and crab & rice, sweet treats such as gooseberry and tamarind stews, tamarind balls, vienna cake and butter cookies and hearty plates of roast pork, stew chicken and conch in butter sauce with the crucial Crucian trimmings of season rice, baked macaroni and cheese, coleslaw and potato stuffing. Pair your meal with a tall glass of tamarind juice, bush tea lemonade, ginger beer, peanut punch or passion fruit juice. Come out and celebrate the 51st annual VI Agrifest from February 18th to February 20th. Admission is $6 Adults, $5 Seniors, $4 Children 12 and under; Three days passes are available for $12 Adults, $10 Seniors, $8 Children 12 and under. The fair will be open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit https://viagrifest.org.
Article written by Anquanette Gaspard (agaspard@cruzanfoodie.com) for Coldwell Banker, St. Croix Realty
Crucian culture, music, mas and revelry was on full display for the 70th Crucian Christmas Festival 2022-2023! After a two-year hiatus caused by the global pandemic, the festival returned with in person events ranging from beauty pageants, food festivals, parades and much more.
Events kicked off on December 11th with the highly anticipated Princess & Duchess pageants followed by the Miss St. Croix Pageant. Zy’Naii Prentice and Je’Talia Hanley were crowned Festival Princess and Festival Duchess, respectively, while Rynel Harris was crowned Miss St. Croix. The Festival Village opened with the richness of Crucian culture on Friday, December 30th with Cultural Night that featured Virgin Islands Ambassadors including Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights quelbe band, Jam Band, Instylez The Band, and newly crowned Festival Princess and Duchess and Miss St. Croix. Village attendees also saw a colorful display of local USVI madras in a lively fashion show while reveling in the magic of Crucian culture.
The Calypso and Soca Monarch competitions saw the best of the best in local music vying for their respective titles. Each night of the festival village carried various themes that highlighted reggae, latin and soca music featuring local and international artists performing for all in downtown Frederiksted. The foreday morning event known as j’ouvert took place in the wee hours of January 5th where revelers danced in the streets of Frederiksted from 5am. For those who still had energy, the Food, Arts and Crafts Fair took place immediately after j’ouvert at the Agricultural Fairgrounds in Estate Lower Love where a sense of community and togetherness could be felt by all in attendance. Local foods and drinks were on sale like fish and fungi, crab and rice, roast pork, kallaloo, tamarind balls, passion fruit juice and sorrel drinks, to name a few.
The Children and Adult Parades were the highlight of the 70th Crucian Christmas Festival where reigning queens, masqueraders, steel pan bands, majorettes, mocko jumbies and quadrille dancers came out in droves to express their indescribable joy due to the long-awaited return of the festival. The closing fireworks after the Adult Parade was the perfect ending to a safe and successful festival season. It left visitor and local attendees, both in person and virtual, making plans to be on island for the 2023-2024 Crucian Christmas Festival. It’s never too early to start making plans. We hope you’ll join us in the fun at the next Crucian Christmas Festival in December 2023.
Article written by Anquanette Gaspard (agaspard@cruzanfoodie.com) for Coldwell Banker, St. Croix Realty
Reflections of Culture, Music, Mas and Revelry! This vibrant, imaginative theme for the 2022- 2023 Crucian Christmas Festival is the perfect description of what the essence of festival season is all about. After a two-year hiatus, Crucian Christmas Festival returns with in-person events ranging from beauty pageants, a nightly cultural village, parades, a food festival, j’ouvert, street tramps, live musical performances from local and international artists and much more.
Festival events kicked off on December 11th with the highly anticipated Prince & Princess/Duke & Duchess pageants with the Miss St. Croix Pageant to follow on Sunday, December 18th. Pageantry has been a vital piece of Crucian Christmas Festival since its inception in 1952 when the first Miss St. Croix Festival Queen, Jessica Tutein Moolenaar, was crowned. Since then, more than sixty women have held this prominent title with a new queen to be crowned this year.
Another cherished tradition during Crucian Christmas Festival is the cultural village that is held in downtown Frederiksted. This year, the Crucian Christmas Festival 70th Anniversary Village opens on Friday, December 30th with Cultural Night at “Daddy Jones Musical Kingdom,” named in honor of legendary producer Alwyn “Daddy Jones” Baptiste. The full force of Crucian culture will be on display with live musical performances from Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights, Jam Band and other celebrated local talent. With a different theme each night, there’s something for everyone at the festival village including carnival rides and games and several booths serving local foods and drinks like johnny cakes, pates, seasoned rice, conch in butter sauce, coquito, passion fruit juice and more.
For those wanting even more Crucian flavor, the Food, Arts and Crafts Fair takes place on Wednesday, January 4th where the creme de la creme show off their fine culinary skills offering local delicacies like roast pork, stew chicken, fish & fungi, vienna cakes, tamarind stew and other delicious treats. Next up is j’ouvert on January 5th where revelers dance in the streets of Frederiksted from 5am into the late morning hours, ending with a cool dip at Frederiksted Beach. Crucian Christmas Festival culminates with the Children and Adult Parades complete with bright, colorful costumes, lively music, mocko jumbie performances, quadrille dancers and endless energy.
For more information about 2022-2023 Crucian Christmas Festival, visit USVI Festivals Facebook page at www.facebook.com/USVIFestivals.
Article written by Anquanette Gaspard (agaspard@cruzanfoodie.com) for Coldwell Banker, St. Croix Realty
For nearly 50 years, Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights (TSK) have serenaded the St. Croix community with the sweet sounds of Christmas quelbe music during the holidays. Over a two-day period, the band kicks off just after a midnight on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning spreading holiday cheer from one end of the island to the next.
TSK is the leading band in the U.S. Virgin Islands that performs the territory’s official music known as quelbe. Also known as scratch band music, this native grassroots form of folk music originated in the USVI and is a form of oral history. It is used to preserve significant historical events, tell stories and jokes (often with a bit of risque undertone) and relay the day-to-day trials and tribulations of island life. This iconic scratch band consists of ten members playing a variety of instruments including a triangle, squash, flute, guitar, steel bass pan, banjo and a conga drum, to name a few. African rhythms and the sound of Danish and British military bands influenced the sound of quelbe music, which has gained great popularity over the past decades.
Band member Kendell Henry shared that the band carried their instruments and walked from house to house when they started back in the 1970s. Today, the band travels across the island on a flatbed truck outfitted with speakers, weaving in and out of neighborhoods playing the sweet sounds of quelbe music. Typically, the serenade route kicks off in Christiansted on Christmas Eve making its way through the neighborhoods as they head east. A long line of vehicles often trails behind the band as they make stops at designated homes to enjoy traditional Christmas refreshments. On Christmas morning, the band heads west to Frederiksted stopping at designated homes once again with the addition of revelry and dancing in the streets. Crowd participation for the serenade has looked different in recent years due to the pandemic. However, the band expects to see the return of some of these traditions this year.
The serenade remains an important part of St. Croix’s culture because it keeps the tradition of quelbe music alive as it was done years ago. In June 2022, band founder Stanley Jacobs received the National Heritage Fellowship Award. As one of the ten fellows (chosen from 180), Jacobs was awarded a $25,000 one-time honorific grant. The National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship is the nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts that celebrates artistic excellence and supports continuing contributions to the traditional arts heritage.
