L-R: Dr. Lee Percentie, Swingers Junkanoo Group; Sanique Culmer, Ministry of Tourism & Aviation; Rudy Stubbs, Swingers Junkanoo Group; Wendell Seymour, Burn House Group of Companies; Betty Bethel, Ministry of Tourism & Aviation; Yvonne Russell, Swingers Junkanoo Group Photo credit: Andre J. E. Cartwright

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island – It’s JUNKANOO SUMMER FESTIVAL time again, and this year promises to be bigger than ever! Junkanoo Summer Festival is an annual Ministry of Tourism and Aviation signature event, designed to showcase Bahamian culture to the visitors to our Islands as well as local residents. This year, the street and heritage festival will take place over a three week period on Taino Beach, from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. 

Junkanoo Summer Festival will now kick-off on Thursday, July 14th, with a feature performance by the man behind the hit song, “Jungalist”, Geno D!

The event will continue on July 21st with KB & Veronica Bishop and close-out on the 28th with Stileet! 

The festival will feature performances by the Royal Bahamas Police Force Marching Band & Pop Band, Stileet and a host of local entertainments. Week II’s headliners will include Gino D and Week III’s finale will include Veronica Bishop and KB!   

The Street & Heritage Festival will colourfully display the traditional cultural elements of cuisine, arts & crafts, nature trail tours, music, including two JUNKANOO rush outs. This year, for the first time Jr. Junkanoo will lead off the parades, with the Swingers bringing the evening to a close with a finale rush out. 

The Junkakids Korner will provide kids an opportunity to interact with each other while learning how to paste costumes and play heritage games.

Visitors and Bahamians alike can engage in “Bush Tea” Tasting after a tour of the nature trail situated at Taino Beach, lined with local shrubs and trees, labeled with their beverage and medicinal purposes.  

The Ministry of Tourism, Grand Bahama Island is especially excited about this year’s festival as we embark on our fifth anniversary at the Taino Beach Park venue. The exciting news is that the Ministry of Tourism is well on its way to converting Government initiated projects to private sector entrepreneurial opportunities. For the third year we have embraced local partnerships which will allow us to better utilize our local talent and private sector relations. The team of Maecal Electronics and A Social Afair will once again co-manage this year’s production of Junkanoo Summer Festival. 

In this same spirit, the Ministry of Tourism was presented with a jingle called “Junkanoo Spirit” written and produced by one of our last year’s apprentices, Angelo Mortimer. His passion and commitment to Tourism lead us to use his jingle for the next two years, as the back ground music for our Junkanoo Summer Festival commercials.  

We see this team of young Grand Bahamian entrepreneurs as the catalyst to moving events such as these from public sector management to private sector ownership.  

The Government understands the economic impact that cultural activities such as Junkanoo Summer Festival have on the local communities, and the move to include more Bahamians in the ownership process, will have an even greater and sustaining impact by distributing the benefits throughout the Island of Grand Bahama. 

The Ministry of Tourism & Aviation is most excited about the new sponsors that we have been able to attract to this annual event. Burns House is the major sponsor of this year’s Junkanoo Summer Festival and we are proud to have them on board.  The Burns House Group is the proud producer and distributor of Kalik Beer which is widely regarded as “beer of The Bahamas.” It is the number one selling Bahamian beer in The Bahamas and the only Bahamian beer to be exported. Kalik; name derived from the “Kalik, Kalik, Kalikin” sound of the cowbell instrument used in Junkanoo, has supported the development of Junkanoo and Bahamian cultural festivals for more than 20 years.  

Mr. Seymour, Commercial Manager of Burns House-Grand Bahama says, “ Whenever possible, we support all forms of Bahamian culture so we are indeed very happy to sponsor this year’s Junkanoo Summer Festival. The Ministry of Tourism has put together a fantastic program; visitors and Grand Bahamians alike will see a wonderful display of Bahamian culture. We are looking forward to an awesome festival”.

The Ministry of Tourism also sincerely appreciates the continued partnership and sponsorship of Freeport City Council, The Grand Bahama Power Company, The Grand Bahama Island Tourism Board, Freeport Container Port, Borco, The Royal Bahamas Police Force,  Red Cross, Crown Ice who produces the Junkanoo Summer Festival logo water, The entertainers, The vendors and artisans and the community at large, especially those who live in the Smith’s Point area, because without everyone’s support this grand event would not be possible.