Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine April 2016 | Page 49

Kadooment is portrayed as a purely

secular event. Because of this, the church has
retreated away from the festival considering it “not
Godly.” WalkHoly however strongly believes that
the origins of the festival (a time of thanksgiving
to God) should be preserved and celebrated.
They believe that God must not be pushed out
of the festival and that He has His place and so
their function is to re-present God within the
Kadooment festival as the one who inspired it and
to whom respect and honour is due.
Marcia Weekes, a Christian woman and founder of
Walkholy was awoken by God and told to have an
impact on Kadooment. A Jamaican by birth, and
she did not know a whole lot about the festival, but
God specifically told her to “bring a band into the
Kadooment”.
Marcia Weekes started WalkHoly in 2001.
At the time God spoke to Marcia, she
and her family had just returned
from living in New York after
almost 10 years. Prior to
moving to New York with
her husband Dave, she had
only spent a few months
in Barbados, hence
Barbadian culture was
very new to her. At around
the same time, God spoke
with another lady Gina,
a member of the Living
Room Church regarding
a band and He gave her the
design for the band. But He never
told her to “bring a band”. Therefore

she had the design - sections, floats, costumes
etc., sitting there and nothing to do with them. It
was only after Marcia and Gina were accidentally
introduced (having never known each other) that it
all came together. The band is not part of a Church
organisation. To this day after almost 15 years, it
has received very little church support; in fact is is
often decried from the church pulpits.
Wall Holy’s band house is at the Praise Academy
of Dance on Cavan’s Lane in Bridgetown.
Responsibility for the band members’ costume
design falls on a small team of dedicated designers
from within the band, who give of their time
wholheartedly without fail.
Walk Holy participates in the Kadooment Festival
and appreciatively, it is the official First Band of
the Kadooment Day parade - it leads the way! This
first position in the parade is sanctioned by
the organizing body of the festival,
the National Cultural Foundation
(NCF). Unfortunately, Walk
Holy no longer competes but
as the other bands contend,
it is continually granted the
first position in the parade
because its function is
now perceived to be that
of blessing the parade as it
proceeds along the streets.
Worship leaders and Gospel
artistes in Barbados, who
are bold enough to bring their
worship to the streets are part of
the band’s parade procession.

Marcia Weekes

= by Dave & Marcia Weekes =

WALK
HOLY
Kadooment Band of
Praise & Worship

Kadooment originated from the end of the sugar cane crop or harvest when
t he slaves celebrated and gave thanks to God for a successful crop. It is said
that they made a great “To do-ment” or made a big deal over the success of
the harvest and hence this concept evolved into the word “Kadooment” which
today has further evolved into a big street carnival. Kadooment Day therefore
is the culmination of the larger CropOver Festival.
~ Dave & Marcia Weekes ~
45

BARBADOS