US Ambassador Candace Bond in awe over Tobago's goat and crab race festival

US Ambassador to TT Candace Bond has promised to tell the world about Tobago’s attributes, most notably its iconic goat and crab race festival.

She was addressing hundreds of spectators on Tuesday at the 95th edition of the Buccoo Goat and Crab Race Festival at the Buccoo Integrated Facility.

The festival, a signature event on the island’s cultural calendar, returned to a full, in-person audience in the seaside village after covid19 caused it to be cancelled for two consecutive years – 2020 and 2021.

Last year, the THA held a scaled-down version of the popular event, titled A Taste of Buccoo.

This was so because the Buccoo Village Council, which has traditionally hosted the festival, felt it did not have enough time to prepare for the event after the government decided to lift almost all of the covid19 restrictions in late March, 2022.

In a statement, last year, after the restrictions were removed, the village council’s PRO Winston Pereira said owing to the “late notice of the repeal of the national covid19 health guidelines,” it would not be able to host the event.

On that occasion, the council also said it was “not involved with any other comparable activity that may be held in the neighbourhood throughout the Easter weekend of 2022.”

On Tuesday, Bond recognised the pivotal role that the festival has played in the lives of Tobagonians over the past 95 years.

She believes Tobago has much to offer the world.

“I am committed to deepening ties between our countries and tell the rest of the world about the wonderful things here in Tobago,” Bond told the audience, which included Chief Justice Ivor Archie and his wife Denise Rodriguez-Archie and Tobago East MP Ayanna Webster-Roy.

Bond, who commended the founders of the event, said the festival was much more than “Goats gone wild.

“Goat racing is an artform, a skill honed over years of careful training and preparation and fanciful poetic naming of the goat contestants.”

She added the festival, which she described as a cultural phenomenon, continues to bring goats and people together from all over the island and country.

“So whether you are a seasoned racer or a newbie goat enthusiast like myself, there is a place for you in the goat racing community.”

Bond paid special tribute to the village council and the goat racing association for keeping the tradition alive.

She said it was a testament to the enduring impact of the festival, which has emerged from its early beginnings in Chance Street “to this beautiful venue where people of all classes and nationalities are gathered here to celebrate.”

Bond also presented a plaque in behalf of the US to Buccoo Village Council president Keigon Denoon to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the event.

In his address, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine urged communities to make full use of their indigenous attributes.

Reflecting on what Buccoo has achieved with its goat and crab race festival for almost a century, Augustine said, “This about being inventive and about using what we have in our hands. And so the object lesson for us as Tobagonians is to ask ourselves ‘What do we have in our hands? What resources do we have? I guarantee you that we can make the best of any resource that we have.”

He said while Tobago may not have the resources other countries possess, “What we have is sufficient to create industries that we can build and profit from.

“Let us all as an island reflect on what the community of Buccoo has been able to do over the years with the goat races and have sustained it for 95 years barring two years of covid (19). Let us use that as an example and replicate it all across the island in every village and ensure that we take whatever we have and make good use of it.”

Buccoo/Mt Pleasant assemblyman Sonny Craig also spoke.