Republic Bank Grand Kadooment to Enhance ‘Sweetest Summer Festival’

Barbados, July 1st, 2015 – Republic Bank’s decades long commitment to the Crop Over Festival moved to another level this year as the leading financial institution stepped in to “rescue the jewel” of the festival with the launch of the Republic Bank Grand Kadooment.

Speaking at a colourful contract-signing ceremony held Wednesday, at the Broad Street Branch of Republic Bank, Manager, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Deborah Stoute, said the Bank was fully committed to the success of the Festival as a whole.

“We demonstrate, yet again, Republic Bank’s commitment to the staging and success of our Crop Over Festival, and to support the efforts of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) as it strives to ensure the continued development and longevity of Crop Over in particular, and the sustained expressions of our cultural heritage, in general,” Stoute stated.

She added that Republic Bank would continue its collaboration with the NCF to ensure that Grand Kadooment, which had been without corporate sponsorship for close to a decade, would be paid the attention it richly deserved as the culmination of the ‘Sweetest Summer Festival’.

“With our injection of capital into ‘Grand Kadooment’, we too want this movement to be about the human expression of emotion, creativity and the passion for life that Caribbean people possess.

“We want ‘Grand Kadooment’ to move beyond bikini mass, feathers and jewels, even though we understand and appreciate their visual and symbolic impact. Based on what the NCF has shared, the Republic Bank Grand Kadooment will this year become even more of a spectacle, as approximately 10 000 costumed masquerades from 24 bands converge on the national stadium to parade before the judges.”

Wayne Webster, Manager Administration of the NCF said a heartfelt thank you to Republic Bank on behalf of the NCF and the people of Barbados.

“We are excited about Republic Bank rebranding of the Grand Kadooment and the type of image of Barbados that would broadcast across the world… You can imagine how excited we were and still are when we got the news that Republic Bank, one of our most dedicated and committed sponsors of the Crop Over Festival, had agreed to rescue the ‘jewel’ through their investment of substantial sponsorship into this event.”

Webster joined Republic Bank’s General Manager of Retail Banking, Susan Torry, in signing the sponsorship contract to make Republic Bank Grand Kadooment official, after which Bridgetown came to life with a sumptuous preview of what is in store for this year’s participants.

Led by a group from Dancin’ Africa, several exquisitely costumed revellers representing a cross section of registered bands, got down behind the music truck with members of the public and staff of Republic Bank.

Moving to the latest soca tunes for Crop Over 2015, the carnival danced and gyrated its way from Broad Street to Republic Bank’s Independence Square Branch in a fitting celebration of the launch of Republic Bank Grand Kadooment.