Activities: Festivals
Festival Calendar | Carnivals | Music Festivals | Street Parties | Theatre | Arts & Crafts | Literary | Religious | Sports | Cultural | Film | Culinary

Literary Festivals

This is a Caribbean festival for Creative Arts with a concept to accumulate and showcase in 10 days, all the creative and artistic skills from the member countries of CARICOM. In 1972 the first CARIFESTA was held in Guyana. Today CARIFESTA can see over 30 nations participating and showing their cultural diversities through Drama, Music, Dance, Theatre, Craft, Art, Music, Fashion & Design as well as Culinary and Literary Arts.

The festival is a celebration of unity, pride and dignity of what the Caribbean people have to offer the world. It starts and ends with beautiful Parade ceremonies complimented by entertaining cultural presentations.

Contact Info
The National Cultural Foundation (NCF)
Address: West Terrace, St. James.
Tel: (246) 424-0909
For more Information: Click here

This is a twelve week celebration of Barbadian culture through folk, art, craft, music, dance masquerading & revelry. It culminates with a huge all day street carnival displaying spectacular costumes.

Period: May to August

Event Dates

The Barbados' NIFCA was introduced in 1973 to celebrate the island's Independence and as an outreach program in to the communities to develop and showcase the many aspects of Bajan culture and creative arts, through Drama, Dance, Music, Literary arts, Culinary Arts, Visual Arts, Photography and Art & Craft.

The National Independence Festival Of Creative Arts - NIFCA in Barbados is organized by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) making it responsible for the many performances, art exhibitions and demonstrations on show.

The NCF NIFCA outreach expands into many Primary & Secondary Schools offering training, workshops and camps for all disciplines of the Arts.

Competitions usually start in September with the last four weeks of the festival used to display the talents of the finalist usually of all ages, during November the month of Independence (November 30th). Many participants compete from throughout the communities of the 12 parishes of Barbados, hoping to be successful and receive awards.

The most popular event of the festival is the Gala which ends the festival and features presentations and performances from the finalist of the competitions.

In recent years NIFCA has shown significant growth in participants, productions and crowd attendance, due to the hard work and commitment of the NCF and their outreach programs as well as giving the public productions and exhibitions of the highest standard.

So visitors and locals come out and support these Barbadians as they strive for excellence.

The festival was founded in 1977 by the late Alfred Pragnell, an entertainer. (Poet, actor and radio announcer)

Highlights of Barbados' history and culture are showcased at this annual festival through art, craft, food, music, fashion, and drama. The celebrations start at the Holetown Monument and ends with a colourful street fair, with some historical lectures, exhibitions, street parades and Tattoo shows in between. There is also lots cultural entertainment such as Steel Pan, Tuk Band, Stilt Walkers, Acrobats and Shaggy Bears as well as live music.

Holetown Festival is located in in a small town called Holetown on the prestigious west coast also known as the "gold coast" in the parish of St James.

The Oistin's Festival started in 1977 and is a street fair with a week of events including the Easter weekend. This event commemorates the signing of the Charter of Barbados. It is also held in honour of the fisher folks in Oistins and persons who have contributed to the Barbados fishing industry.

The festival showcases a variety of local and regional delicacies, art & craft, live music and cultural entertainment such as the steel-pan and tuk-band. Two of the main attractions are the fish boning competition and the climb-the-grease-pole competition. Some of the other competitions are the crab racing and boat racing competition.