Attractions · Our pick in Barbados
Crop Over: the island’s summer festival
The back story
About Crop Over: the island’s summer festival
Crop Over is the island’s great festival, a season of calypso, soca, food and masquerade that builds through the summer to Grand Kadooment, one of the biggest carnival parades in the Caribbean.
What Crop Over is
Crop Over is run by the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), which describes the present-day festival as uniquely Barbadian, born of the meeting and merging of the island’s British and West African heritage. Today it is a summer-long festival of Barbadian music, arts, food and culture.
Grand Kadooment
The festival ends with Grand Kadooment, the great carnival parade, held in August; the NCF calls it the biggest and sweetest carnival to end the Caribbean’s carnival season. It starts early in the morning at the National Stadium, and the masquerade bands travel through the streets to finish on the Spring Garden Highway in the late afternoon. In 2026, Grand Kadooment was on 3 August. The NCF’s site also covers Foreday Morning, the other big night of the season.
Kadooment is known as the biggest and sweetest carnival to end the Caribbean’s carnival season.
The music
Crop Over is also a season of competitions: the calypso and soca monarchs, the Tune of the Crop and the junior monarchs, whose winners the NCF publishes each year.
Planning your visit
Plan to be here for the finale in early August, book rooms and flights well ahead, and check the NCF’s site for this year’s calendar of events.
Why it's on our list
- What Crop Over is
- Grand Kadooment
- The music
- Planning your visit
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Crop Over: the island’s summer festival before you go.