“Strength and Resilience Like You’ve Never Seen, Anguilla Summer Festival 2018” was the very fitting slogan for Anguilla’s 2018 Summer Festival. Anguilla’s journey, following the passage of Hurricane Irma, has been aptly captured by the Summer Festival’s slogan. After the initial despair felt by many Anguillians and residents, when they witnessed the havoc caused by Hurricane Irma, they quickly reverted to what apparently is ingrained in the DNA of Anguillians – a spirit of strength and resilience in the face of adversity. That spirit of strength and resilience allowed Anguilla, in less than one year, to provide Anguillians and visitors alike the opportunity to celebrate our triumph over adversities, whether in our distant past or our more recent past.
The 2018 Anguilla Summer Festival served as a much-deserved break for Anguillians and residents from the arduous tasks many of us have faced daily, since the passage of Hurricane Irma, as we toiled together to rebuild our island home. Recognising that this year’s Summer Festival was special, revelers, contestants and supporters all rose to the occasion to ensure that the best of Anguilla was on display. Our Summer Festival was fun-filled with very little need for police intervention as most revelers engaged in the various activities on offer without exhibiting unacceptable social behavior. The traditional Summer Festival Shows have all been described as being of a very high calibre, particularly the Prince & Princess Show, the Talented Teen Pageant and the Junior Calypso Show. Anguilla’s young people continue to demonstrate their vast array of talents and their supreme self-confidence. The Anguillian newspaper offers congratulations to all these young persons, and to their parents, coaches and supporters who, in the face of adversity, have still found time to nurture, mould and train our children. We see the value in our youth and we continue to give them every opportunity to shine, even in adverse times.
The Anguilla Government as a whole, and the Department and Ministry of Youth and Culture in particular, must be commended for overcoming all the obstacles they encountered as they sought to ensure that, despite all the damage caused by Hurricane Irma’s ill winds, the 2018 Summer Festival would be a reality. Financing the Summer Festival was clearly a challenge, and with all the demands on the Government’s coffers there must have been various excuses available to the Government to justify the cancellation of the 2018 Summer Festival. Thankfully, the psychological well being of a population, that has been sorely tested by Hurricane Irma, was not lost on officials who recognised the value of the Summer Festival in providing a well-earned release for those who have been facing various anxieties since the passage of Hurricane Irma.
Many of the trials and tribulations caused by Hurricane Irma are still with us, and Anguillians and residents must now return to grappling with those issues, now that the Summer Festival has concluded. Hopefully, we will do so with renewed energy and hope having been able to cast aside some of our anxieties, even if just for a short while. Hopefully, the Summer Festival also provided many Anguillians with a financial boost as they sold much needed food and drink to revelers at the various Summer Festival venues. This was no doubt a welcome opportunity for many and hopefully will assist them on their path to recovery.
While it is possible that the Anguilla Summer Festival Committee will not be able to deem the 2018 Summer Festival a financial success, in all other respects it will very likely be judged to have been successful. There were activities for all audiences; a mix of the traditional and the new; activities by day and by night; and on land and on sea. A tried and tested people were allowed an opportunity to relax, to appreciate life’s pleasures and to come back, hopefully, refreshed and reinvigorated so as to demonstrate greater strength and resilience as we continue the task of rebuilding our homes, our businesses, our lives and our Anguilla.
