The Welches Fest, now in its fifth year, has become the main attraction on the Whit Monday Holiday inAnguilla, leaving in second and third places the boat-racing and beach picnics which once dominated the off-day from work for many persons on the island.
From early in the morning, many vendors, from the Welches andIslandHarbourareas, as well as from several other parts of Anguilla, began setting up outdoor fireplaces and firewood, tents, food stalls and tables, for traditional cooking, baking and serving.
By mid-morning, hundreds of people had already arrived on the scene, filling the large seating accommodation areas to capacity and spreading out on foot across the spacious playing-field. In many cases, throughout the day, the crowded food stalls and bar put considerable pressure on a handful of servers to meet demands for service. In some instances, supplies quickly ran out as persons made multiple orders for food using tickets purchased at a small nearby tent.
Outside the tents, under the intense heat of the sun, pots of rice and peas, stewed chicken and other meats, boiled at the fire-places; and baking drums with johnny cakes, under blazing wood, busily sent servers back and forth with trays of hot bakes only to be purchased on sight at the long queues.
Elsewhere fried cakes, fish, cassava bread, potato pudding and other delicacies, which also featured traditional Anguillian cooking and lifestyles, attracted considerable patronage.
A notable feature was the presence of many of the older folk whose way of life remains tied to the customs and artifacts of theAnguillaof yesteryear. Among them were residents of some of the senior citizens’ homes.
Many young people were also given an opportunity to see and play with models of the homemade toys with which grown-ups across the island amused themselves in the early days.
String band music, one of the other features of traditional Anguilla, was also on hand to enliven the crowd with its rhythm and dance.
Joseph Vanterpool, one of the village organisers of the Welches Fest, put the event in context during an interview with The Anguillian.
“The Welches Fest means a whole lot to this part ofAnguilla,” he stated. “We are one of the agricultural areas in Anguilla. Over the years, the people of Welches cultivated their lands, reared animals and supported their children that way. We grew up with our parents, animals, planting and cooking in this manner – so for us it is reliving what we used to do as younger folk. We are now giving others an appreciation of what life was back then.”
Asked to elaborate, he went on: “We have the outside cooking on three fire rocks, the head-and-foot soup, the yard fowl soup and so on, as was the case back then. The community working together, in a spirit of jollification, as you see here, is representative of traditional life in Anguilla. This is what we are accustomed to in Welches.
“We have encouraged the whole of Anguilla to come out. For those who did not know, it is a learning experience. I am happy to see the older folk here and we also have a lot of the younger folk. People are just enjoying themselves.
“We did a lot of advertising and we must say thanks to the media houses: The Anguillian newspaper, Radio Anguilla, Upbeat Radio and 103.3 Kool FM. The media helped us a lot and over the years the Welches Fest has been going very well, with us entertaining the public and keeping them well-fed.”
Mr. Vanterpool said that the event was growing by leaps and bounds and was a lot of work for one day.
The front-liners are mostly from the Welches community. We are assisted by folk from Island Harbour, The Farrington, South Valley and other areas, but it is all spearheaded by the Welches community,” Vanterpool added.
