Annual Independence Day Parade to be held at Usain Bolt Sports Complex, announces Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams

The annual Independence Day Parade will take place at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex (UBSC) on November 30.

Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, Wilfred Abrahams made the announcement in a media conference held at the Department of Home Affairs in Wildey yesterday afternoon.

The decision was taken after the first choice Kensington Oval was unavailable for rehearsals due to the preparations for the upcoming white ball series between West Indies and England in December.

“After that was established, we had to look for a new venue. The default venue was to go back to the Garrison Savannah but anybody who has passed there in the last couple of weeks or months would see that the Savannah is dug up. There is some construction work going on there and the field is completely unfit to host a parade at this time.”

The group responsible for deciding the venue also did site visits to the Port and Weymouth Playing Field before deciding that the Usain Bolt Sports Complex was the best logistical location for the event.

“I think everyone who went on the tour of the facility that day and everyone was in unanimous agreement that it was perhaps the best place to host it,” Abrahams continued. “The second factor for us was the fact that the infield was made out of astroturf and it has fantastic draining, so even if the rain fell before or even during the parade, the parade would not be stopped. The venue itself also provides a bit of a natural amphitheatre.”

There was a hue and cry about the switched venue this week on the call-in programmes

“We would have preferred Kensington Oval, if we were being honest, and if that could not happen, then we would have preferred the Savannah, but those two were out and the UBSC, I think, is the next best place we could have it,” Abrahams explained.

“Arrangements are being made for all of those who want to attend and the Transport Board Authority has committed to accommodating the ferrying and shuttling of persons by the bus stand and about five park and ride spots. When the parade is finished, we are doing the march from the Usain Bolt Complex up to the roundabout, down Black Rock with the Prime Minister and Cabinet taking their salute at the Carlton Supermarket complex and the parade will then turn right and go down Carlton and then disman at the Carlton Sports complex.”

The parade will include the pinning of leadership badges, the national honours will be presented, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley will be making an address and the Barbados Landship is celebrating reaching a significant milestone this year that will be celebrated with the help of other cultural organisations.