West Fest, now in its second year at Meads Bay, is not only becoming an event of much prominence on its own, but a great forerunner of, and bolster to, the August Thursday boat race now being revived there.
August Thursday is an annual national holiday in Anguilla and is part of the Anguilla Summer Festival celebrations. In earlier years, boatracing on August Thursday was a big attraction at Meads Bay, but the cluster of tourism development there, over the years, considerately limited the space for large crowds.
Now, the West End community has been allowed the use of a spacious area of beach land. It is being used for the West Fest which includes boatracing and other social and cultural activities and which, as mentioned above, is a precursor to the August Thursday boat race. It is also a forerunner to the upcoming Solaire Cup Boat Race.
West Fest, on Sunday, June 14, saw a large and exciting crowd at Meads Bay – several tents and food stalls, entertainment bands and musicians, boatracing and other activities.
Popular talk show host and commentator, Yanchie Richardson, was the main spokesman there. “So far we have nine boats. We are waiting for two, and I just announced the boats we have for the race,” he told The Anguillian. “We have the Vyking, Blued Bird, Light N’Peace, Wizard, Eagle, Real Deal, Sonic, De Tree and Satellite is on its way.
“We also had a couple of bicycle – different triangular races, which were won by a number of persons. While the boats are out we will have a beer-drinking competition and a hot dog-eating competition. Unfortunately, the volleyball competition won’t come off because it was not possible for the organisers to get that together. We have nine or ten vendors and now, that the evening is approaching, the place is getting even more crowded so we are ready to rumble.”
Speaking further, Yanchie stated: “This is the West Fest. It is something for the West End community. The people here really want to bring back boatracing to Meads Bay and this is why I hold the Solaire Cup Boat Race which will be coming up on the 19th of July at this particular spot.
“The boats, cyclists and others taking part in this West Fest are going to be paid. There is a US$2,000 overall cash prize for the cyclists; US $2,500 to be distributed to the bands and DJs. There is a US$200 prize for the hot dog competition; and for the beer-drinking competition, US$300. There would have been US$500 for the volleyball competition. The overall prize money for the boats is US$4,500. The boats should do significantly well as it is a short race. On August Thursday there will be
‘crossfire fire’ [a live radio boat race talk show] here at the beach so there is a great effort to bring back boatracing to Meads Bay to what we know it used to be.”
The money for the various competitions in the West Fest was mainly donated by the various tourism properties lining Meads Bay.
