The Botanical Gardens is getting ready to host the Nine Nights of Light Christmas festival, five months after Hurricane Beryl damaged 80% of the trees at the 259-year-old park.
The festival was launched on Tuesday at the Botanical Gardens, with the chair of the organising committee, Calisha Solomon, saying that organisers do not want to reveal too much about this year’s design.
“This year, we went with the arches. We had a concept to do arches throughout the gardens as we have a City of Arches in Kingstown — so we try to mimic that here in the garden,” Solomon said of the festival, which runs from Dec. 15 to 23.
“… you will see that most of our designs are based around that (arches),” she said, adding that the designs will incorporate the natural elements in the gardens.
“So, you will see this year when you come, more lights are focused on the trees instead of the structures and the designs,” Solomon said.
“At the pond area, we are doing a maypole setting … there …” she said, adding that the entrance and exit to the gardens will also incorporate arches.
“We don’t want to reveal much. So, when you come on the night, you will see exactly what we are doing this year,” Solomon said.
Solomon said the festival, which began in 2015, has been contributing significantly to the country’s unique Nine Mornings festival and Christmas celebration.
She, however, said 2024 has been “a year for the record books”.
Solomon noted that the National Parks Rivers and Beaches Authority — which has jurisdiction over the gardens — and the country were severely impacted by Hurricane Beryl on July 1.
“When we visited the site’s post-recovery, we realised that the damage caused here at the Botanical Garden was about 80% of the trees that had fallen and the debris was everywhere as far as the eye could see. We questioned ourselves, wondering if we will be able to have an event.
“However, we had in our heads that we … experienced La Soufriere eruptions in 2021 …and the COVID-19 pandemic, yet we were still able to observe a Christmas festival here in the botanical gardens.”
She said the hurricane was “just another block in the road for us to overcome.
“Our sponsors this year, like everyone else in the country, also had to deal with the impact of the hurricane and we greatly appreciate their support and commitment for this year and the years before,” Solomon said.
Meanwhile, chair of the National Nine Mornings Committee, Bomani Charles, said that over the last decade, his committee has focused on “building out St. Vincent and the Grenadines as the place to be for Christmas in the Caribbean.
“And it is our hope, it is our desire, it is our wish, that we continue to strengthen these components, hence our initial inputs in terms of cash and other technical support to the Nine Nights Committee for building out the Botanical Gardens as one of the major attractions for Christmas in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
Charles said Nine Nights has complimented Nine Mornings “quite nicely”.
“We offer, broadly, opportunities for locals and visitors alike to participate in the broad national Christmas festival from Fancy, Owia, to Point, the valley, Leeward, from Fitz Hughes all the way down to the Grenadines, there is something to do for Christmas in St. Vincent and the Grenadines as it pertains to our traditional festivals.”
He said that SVG has created “something very unique” not just the Nine Morning celebrations, adding that lighting the oldest botanical gardens in the Western Hemisphere has become a major attraction.
Charles also spoke of the challenges in raising sponsorship for the festival.
“But it is important that we power through these challenges and recognize the significance, the cultural significance and the immense tourism potential of these festivals and all their components,” he said.