We are glad that planning is already well under way for the 60th August Emancipation Festival, and we hope that the entire community will support this landmark celebration.
So far, organisers seem to be busily moving in the right direction. Shortly after last year’s festivities, a committee of stakeholders was established to advise the education and culture minister on the way forward. The committee subsequently recommended various changes, which seem reasonable.
First, the festivities will be shortened by five days. This change will involve cutting early days at the Festival Village Grounds in Road Town. Frankly, we doubt these days will be much missed, as they tended to be sparsely attended anyway. The new format should save money and allow a tighter line-up of activities to be packed into a shorter timeframe.
For similar reasons, the plan to shorten the East End and Carrot Bay festivities from three to two days each also seems sensible, though we hope that the traditional cultural festivities will proceed as usual in both areas.
Another welcome addition this year is a ceremony celebrating Nottingham Estate. It is high time that the territory properly commemorates the historical significance of the area, which is believed to have been the first free black community in the Western Hemisphere.
Finally, the plan to bring the celebrations back to Road Town for a grand finale adds a neat cohesion to Festival.
Taken together, these new ideas are testament to the importance of early planning and stakeholder consultation.
We do have a major concern, however: To date, no report on last year’s Festival has been made public.
This is unfortunate. The 2005 VI Festivals and Fairs Committee Act requires the committee to record its financial transactions and submit a report to the minister of education and culture. The minister, in turn, is required to lay the report before the legislature, thereby making it public.
For years, however, no report reached the public. In 2012 that changed: Under a newly appointed VIFFC chairman, a report was prepared and publicised in a timely manner.
The document described systemic flaws in the Festival planning process, and suggested that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars had been spent each year with insufficient accountability. The report also made numerous recommendations for improvement.
In the absence of the 2013 report, the public will not know if the 2012 recommendations were followed — or what should be done differently this year. We call on leaders to release the document as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, we hope the entire community will start planning now for Festival. As residents prepare, they should keep in mind the reason for the celebrations: On Aug. 1, 1834, the Emancipation Proclamation decreed that slavery was illegal in the Virgin Islands and across the British Empire.
If this year’s festivities are tailored to reflect the significance of this anniversary, Festival 2014 will be one to remember.
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