We Gatherin’ 2025 continues to gain momentum as the year-long initiative prepares to transition from St Thomas to St Joseph.
St Thomas is going out with a bang as the marquee event, Roast and Roots: A Celebration of Nature and Flavour, had something for everyone.
Held on the grounds of the Natural Heritage Department, Sturges, St Thomas, the day-long celebration was filled with events, including hikes, yoga sessions, live entertainment, stick licking, the Barbados Landship and much more.
“We had shuttles taking people on tours of the Flower Forest, Welchman Hall Gully and Harrison Cave. We also have an arts and crafts village, a community hike which began and ended here, and we had an early morning workout from 6 a.m.,” said festival and events planner with the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Stacia Bryan.
She explained the NCF was producing the major We Gatherin’ events and Roast and Roots would live up to the name, as it featured the Genealogy Department as well as “the biggest breadfruit roast” and a roast pig.
The two “porketeers” manning the pig roast, Kirt Elcock and Alonzo Brathwaite, were around three hours in on a six to seven-hour roast. Brathwaite said the method involved pre-heating a China Roasting Box, placing the meat, seasoning it well, then placing a cover filled with coals to keep the heat locked inside.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with Responsibility for Culture, Senator Dr Shantal Munro-Knight, challenged critics to attend some of the We Gatherin’ events.
“Despite the criticism, we are not just holding fêtes. This [Roast and Roots] is a whole family event and is especially geared for entrepreneurs. I would invite the critics to come and see and experience We Gatherin’ for themselves rather than criticise something they are not participating in,” she said.
Munro-Knight said that overall, the initiative was a success thus far and St Thomas had set a high bar which St Joseph was “rearing and ready” to follow, promising another “big month” for We Gatherin’.
She expressed pleasure at the response from the private sector.
“So far, the private sector has given around $300 000 in support, and more organisations are coming on board, but beyond money, we have partners who are helping us with social initiatives such as building
ramps for the disabled, painting tennis courts and more and this will be happening across all the parishes,” she said, highlighting an upcoming CIBC investment forum for 100 people in the diaspora.
The We Gatherin’ fun was not only happening at Sturges, as the St Thomas Parish Church held its own event yesterday as well.
“This is the Harvest Market, Nature Garden and Business Expo, a part of We Gatherin’,” Reverend Audrey Griffith said. “We were supposed to do this in 2020 when We Gatherin’ originally was supposed to happen, but COVID ruined all that. Now we are grateful for this opportunity.”
She said the event aimed to bring the community together and give exposure to small businesses while also raising funds for the church.
Public relations officer of the organising committee, Moreen Bowen, said there were around 70 small businesses taking part. She said the day included karaoke, an art display, lectures on the history of St Thomas and about medicinal plants, performances from various primary schools and tracing ancestry with Government’s Department of Genealogy.
