Participants of a torchlight procession dance their way to the Neil “Mr. Melee” Blyden Festiville during the 2017 August Emancipation Festival. File Photo: NGOVOU GYANG

“Glorious! Glorious! One battle of rum for the whole of us!” the Lashing Dogs sang from the back of a truck while about 30 residents danced along Waterfront Drive holding torches. “And when we get drunk, we are happy as can be, for we are the members of the rum company.”

 

The procession started at the Noel Lloyd Positive Action Movement Park and culminated at the Neil “Mr. Melee” Blyden Festiville, where this year’s August Emancipation Festival officially got under way.

Participants of a torchlight procession dance their way to the Neil “Mr. Melee” Blyden Festiville on Monday evening. The annual August Emancipation Festival, which opened shortly thereafter, continues for the next nine days with activities planned in Road Town, East End and Carrot Bay. Photo: NGOVOU GYANG
Over the next nine days, the celebrations will continue in Road Town, East End and Carrot Bay in commemoration of the Aug. 1, 1834 abolition of slavery across the Virgin Islands and the rest of the British Empire.

For Isola de Castro, the Monday torchlight procession was an appropriately traditional way to kick off the festivities.
“In my younger years, we had steel pans; we danced on the street behind the band,” she said. “We had Chinese lanterns on a stick. Although you were having a great time dancing, you had to be careful not to let the lantern burn. It was just wonderful. We have to carry on this tradition. This is really our culture.”

SEE THE AUG. 3, 2017 EDITION FOR FULL COVERAGE.

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