Village festivals are increasing in Anguilla with more and more residents becoming involved in organising them. The latest is the North Valley Festival which was launched on Saturday, July 29, mainly by Kalyn Mairyshaw, a young entrepreneur residing in that area of the island.
“For the past six years, my husband and I have been doing an event called ‘Kite Fest’ in an effort to give back to the community, and also to create unity among the youngsters,” she told The Anguillian. “It has been a while and the event has been slowly coming off the ground and then we decided that this is a give back, so we should do something which would incorporate just not us but others as well.
“This idea came to me and I said I would love to see a festival right here in this field so I spoke to a couple persons and said let’s form a committee. I gathered Anita Richardson, Vernol Richardson and Heather and along with myself we formed a committee. They were all for this event and we went about planning for it and, in less than a year, here we are with the North Valley first Cultural Fest.”
The field, which Kalyn talks about, is an open area which perhaps hardly anybody outside the village knew about. Considerably large, it can accommodate fairly large gatherings as well as food, other display booths and musical bands. In fact, for this initial festival, there were a number of booths with food and refreshment, agricultural produce – and providing the entertainment was the Overdrive String Band.
“This is your whole breakfast here,” said Kalyn, waving her hand across the booths featuring Johnny cakes, locally-made jams and jellies, teas and other food and drink items. “It has been a task but I think that pulling off such an event, for the first time, there has already been a good turnout and later in the day I expect to see more faces.”
Kalyn spoke about the first activity held by the North Valley Fest on Saturday, 29th July: “We had the Carnival Queen and Talented Teen contestants, Animation World with characters dressed up in different costumes that children love; and we also had the Marching Band from Pastor Hugo Brook’s Church,” she recalled. “They did a lovely march past for us. The police guided it from the old hospital straight down into North Valley. It was something to see. It was an historic moment on the grounds of North Valley.”
