The story
Anguilla Summer Festival in The Valley/Sandy Ground/Island-wide
Anguilla's largest cultural celebration, a multi-week island-wide carnival rooted in 1834 emancipation celebrations, blending calypso and soca competitions, street parades, food fairs and traditional boat racing across The Valley, Sandy Ground and villages throughout the island, culminating in a first Monday of August kickoff that echoes the original emancipation date.
Anguilla Summer Festival is the island's largest and most important cultural celebration, a two-and-a-half-week carnival that traces its roots back to August Monday emancipation celebrations that residents have marked since 1834, when Britain's Emancipation Act freed enslaved people across its Caribbean colonies.