The St. John Arts Festival is off and running again with a great program for the week commencing February 19 through February 25, 2011.

The program kicks off with the 73rd Army Band playing in the National Parks (NP) ball-field, opposite Mongoose Junction, from 12:30 p.m. through the afternoon with an exhibition of Caribbean-made arts, crafts, and foods, which runs for the whole week from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day, at the same location, together with different bands each day.

Sunday, February 20, is a special Gospel Concert of local church choirs together with the UVI “Anacrusis Brass” band providing music reminiscent of the lazy Sunday afternoons of old.

Sunday Evening at the Westin ballroom at 8 p.m. will be a guaranteed sizzling performance of the Caribbean Ritual Dancers who personify the essence of all that is Caribbean and, moreover, what visitors and locals alike expect to see when they speak of “Caribbean”.

Monday keeps the beat going with “the” reggae band of St. John the “Inner Visions” playing in the NP Ball-Field all afternoon. There just isn’t a better reggae band, as their extensive global tours can attest.

Monday evening at the St. John School of the Arts at 6 p.m. is the special “St. John School of the Arts Performs” show covering the whole range of student activities ranging from instrumental, vocal and dance through all ages to highlight the exuberance and talent of the children of St. John.

Tuesday, February 22, in the NP Ball-Field rolls back time to the days when voice and percussion instruments were the only forms of musical expression along with story-telling, portrayed by the “Echo People” ensemble of St. John.

Tuesday evening at 7:30 p.m. at the St. John School of the Arts, the St. John Film Society will be showing the award-winning documentary “Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Manthai” by Lisa Merton and Alan Dater.

Then on Wednesday in the NP ball-field, the festival moves along in time to when island songs and musical instruments were simple and inexpensive (home-made mostly) with “Koko and the Sunshine Band” taking everyone back to those uncomplicated times.

Thursday, February 24, in the NP ball-field it’s time to switch to the smooth Latin-American –influenced music of the “Samba Combo” band which adds another interesting facet to the tropical setting of St. John.

Thursday from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm, at the National Park Service Museum, Cinnamon Bay, we go way back, before the Europeans discovered St. John and the other Caribbean islands, with a film and archaeological artifacts depicting the life of the earliest inhabitants – the Taino Indians from South America. Compared to what followed, these peace-loving people were indeed the “good” heritage of the islands.

Also on Thursday the V.I. National Park kicks off its annual three-day Folklife Festival at the Annaberg sugar mill ruins further expounding on the culture of the islands in all its forms.

Rounding off the week on Friday, February 25, a new local St. John band “Musical Vibrations” will play in the NP ball-field which brings the festival right up to the present.

Concurrent with the seven-day festival is the Restaurant Live Music Program listing all the island restaurants and the various band and instrumentalists playing each evening for diners to choose according to both cuisine and music.
Last, but by no means least, there will be art exhibitions at the local art galleries throughout the week.

Although staffed entirely by volunteers, significant support for maior artislic events is gratefully acknowledged from the Virgin Islands Council of the Arts, as is support from the Virgin Islands Department of Tourism for promotion of this major St. John celebration in past years.

Also, our thanks to Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos,Hunter College, New York for supplying the Taino heritage films.

Do not miss this unique Arts Festival in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sincerely,
Frank J. Langley, President