All-white torchlight procession draws largest crowd in recent years

TORTOLA — The British Virgin Islands Tourist Board and Film Commission, which is now mandated with organizing the Emancipation Festival activities, will be able to look back to this year’s Torchlight Procession when gauging its success and whether the move was the right one.

The procession, from the Noel Lloyd Action Movement Park to Festival village, marked the largest crowed in recent memory. Dressed all in white, participants carrying their torchlights danced and sang along the half-mile route with legendary musician Elmore Stoutt backed by Zion Sounds.

Event coordinator Anne Lennard said organizers wanted to do something different and the first thing they thought of was having an all-white theme. They added dancers and BVI Festival royalty bedecked in regalia. Residents had been encouraged to come out and celebrate the true reason for emancipation – freedom from slavery and not simply a fete.