The Tribune

MORE than 10,000 people - from as far afield as China, Greece, Belgium, England, United States as well as The Bahamas - swarmed to Central Andros at the wekeend for the island’s long-awaited Crab Fest, one of the country’s largest annual cultural-heritage events.

This year was hailed as “better than ever,” said Peter Douglas, chairman of the cultural-heritage festival. Officials claim Crab Fest is the most exciting culinary experience in The Bahamas – and arguably the Caribbean – and plan to expand it to become the world’s premier crab event.

The event started 17 years ago when Central Andros was looking for an economic boost and the local government partnered with the Ministry of Tourism. It began with two to three vendors serving a few crab dishes: now scores of vendors prepare the crabs in many different ways ranging from Crab n’dough, stuffed crab, crab n’ rice, curried crab, crab souse, crab fitters, crab salad, garlic crab... the list goes on.

“Crabs mean a lot to us in Andros,” Mr Douglas, a native of the island, said. “It’s a food source and an economic source. When we start our crabbing season, we like to say ‘the bank of Andros is open, go and make your wealth’.”

Crab catchers, the best chefs and vendors from North, South and Central Andros and all over The Bahamas plan for months to let Bahamians and the world taste their delectable creations.

“It tastes delicious and studies have shown that the Andros Crab is preferred over snow crabs, stone crabs, blue crabs and other well known crab species,” Mr Douglas said.

Andros land crabs have a unique mushroomy/nutty taste. There are over seven million crabs in Andros and Mr Douglas thinks they should be a main export of The Bahamas because of their exotic taste.

Mr Douglas noted that Crab Fest is the only cultural festival in The Bahamas where every stall can serve both food and alcohol.

Potters Cay Dock and Crab Fest veteran vendor “Tall Boy” said that he would never miss Crab Fest and has been coming to sell his crab goods since its inception.

“Crab Fest has been good to me, crabbing has been good to me, it’s a very important part of our culture. We know people that have built houses and put their children through school from crabbing, it’s a very lucrative business,” he said.

Crab Fest officials and Androsians stressed that not only has the event created an economic stimulus, but it has also raised a sense of awareness of the need to understand the life of crabs and the necessity to protect and conserve their habitat.

There were 12 hours of Bahamian entertainment, with Androsian entertainers at the forefront.

These included such headliners as Lassie Doe & The Boys, D-Mac, Elon Moxey, Veronica Bishop, Ra Pa Pum Pum, Lavant Pratt, the Mighty Pencil and Ira Storr and the Spank Band. The crowd danced to the sounds of rake ’n scrape and Junkanoo music from the Valley Boys Junkanoo Showtime Group.

Those attending Crab Fest also enjoyed a watermelon-eating contest, heritage games and a “keep what you catch” crab competition.