When is Culturama?
Culturama is a public holiday in Saint Kitts and Nevis observed on the Tuesday after the first Monday in August.
It extends the Emancipation Day holidays by one day and is a festival that showcases the cultural heritage of the islands.
History of Culturama
If you are in St. Kitts and Nevis and hankering for a party in the long months between the end of Carnival in February/March and Sugarmas which takes place in the run-up to Christmas, then Culturama is the answer.
In 1974, the Nevis Dramatic and Cultural Society (NEDACS) felt that the Christmas festival was starting to suffer from a lack of traditional dance troupes. Their solution was to establish a new festival that would highlight and promote Nevisian heritage. They named the festival 'Culturama' and chose the August Emancipation weekend as the date.
After a rocky period in the mid-1980s, Culturama has now established itself as a key date in the calendar. And while outsiders would struggle to tell the festival apart from many other Caribbean carnivals; through many of its events, Cultarama does strive to maintain its original purpose of promoting local culture and heritage.
