After spending two days at the festival it became abundantly clear why this celebration was so enjoyable.
It wasn’t because the day we left Canada we received eighteen inches of snow, and the soft sandy white warm beaches of Island Harbour are so much more fun to walk in than the cold Canadian snow. It wasn’t the fact that all the food was fresh from the sea and very tasty. I realized everything was from the sea after I spent an hour strolling around asking for chicken wings. After having made a fool of myself for long enough someone mercifully and politely informed me that there ain’t no chicken growing in the sea.
So if it wasn’t the beautiful weather, or the sandy calm beach, or all the scrumptious sea food, what was it then? What made Festival Del Mar so enjoyable?
The answer gently came to me like a warm wave washing over my feet. What makes this festival great is the people! the attitude of gratitude! The thankfulness for what the sea provides.
Take Reggie Oliver, for example. You will find him happily dancing on the beach, always going out of his way just to say hello, making people feel welcome. Reggie entered the relay swimming race to Scilly Cay, not to win, just to do it. He loved being in the sea so much that he swam back as well. Reggie came in last place. (After all he is over sixty, but you would never guess it by his body or demeanour, let alone the swim.) However, I guarantee that nobody, not even the young man who won the race and prize money, had as much fun as Reggie Oliver! As Reggie took his last few steps to shore I fully expected him to collapse with exhaustion. Not Reggie. He gave a great big grin and said, “I love it in the sea! That is where I relax. I wish the race was to go around all of Scilly Cay.” Just then, somebody handed Reggie water in one hand and a beer in the other. Reggie immediately raised both hands high in the air and started dancing jubilantly. Now that is the spirit of Festival Del Mar.
There were numerous examples of this spirit, from everyone pitching in to help raise the mast of a sail boat to friendly greetings to a vendor offering up her van to let the ninety year old “Queen of Shoal Bay” have a nap. Some people bought tickets for a cash draw just to give away to children or first timers.
It is a friendly feel good festival and we really enjoyed it and will definitely be back.
Johnny and Judy.
