De­spite the pour­ing rain, a spir­it­ed crowd gath­ered at the Buc­coo In­te­grat­ed Fa­cil­i­ty yes­ter­day for the 96th edi­tion of the Buc­coo Crab and Goat Race Fes­ti­val 2024.

This year’s event ho­n­oured the vi­sion­ary pi­o­neers who es­tab­lished the fes­ti­val, look­ing ahead to its im­pend­ing cen­te­nary cel­e­bra­tion.

But that part of the event had to be post­poned due to the rain. Still, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine praised the founders for their un­wa­ver­ing sup­port to de­vel­op­ing the sport.

“This re­mains a tes­ta­ment of what we can achieve as To­bag­o­ni­ans, how great­ly we can be in­no­v­a­tive and how our in­dige­nous cul­ture is more than enough to mar­ket us in this glob­al sphere and to bring the world to our shore,” Au­gus­tine said.

“The fact that we could have some­thing of a poor man’s in­ven­tion that the rest of the world has grown to re­spect. We have some­thing some­what of a To­ba­go in­ven­tion that the rest of the world fly here to come and see as a won­der.”

The fes­ti­val faced a two-hour de­lay due to the in­clement weath­er but that did not de­ter the scores of at­ten­dees from par­tic­i­pat­ing in the fes­tiv­i­ties.

Vi­brant dis­plays of To­ba­go’s cul­ture, mu­sic and dance en­ter­tained the crowd through­out the day de­spite the con­tin­u­ous driz­zle.

Goa­trac­ers and train­ers, with their an­i­mals in tow, com­pet­ed with the usu­al pas­sion, even in the face of ad­verse weath­er.

Min­is­ter of Sport and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and To­ba­go West MP Sham­fa Cud­joe urged To­bag­o­ni­ans to be proud of sus­tain­ing this unique cul­ture for 96 years.

“We de­vel­oped a fa­cil­i­ty for goat rac­ing to cel­e­brate To­ba­go cul­ture and all that is Buc­coo and here we stand so many years lat­er bask­ing in the glo­ry in To­bag­on­ian great­ness. To­day, we cel­e­brate cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ty and To­bag­on­ian pride and uni­ty. It is about re­silience, it’s about grit and re­sis­tance,” Cud­joe said.

Mean­while, area rep­re­sen­ta­tive Son­ny Craig said now was the best time to pay trib­ute to the found­ing fa­thers and ho­n­our those who con­tin­ue to strive to keep the art of goat and crab rac­ing alive.

“We are ap­proach­ing 100 and we have some plans to cel­e­brate for the next four years go­ing in­to 100. The pi­o­neers who start­ed this event must be recog­nised. And our best in­ten­tions have been damp­ened to­day.”

The Buc­coo Vil­lage Coun­cil, re­spon­si­ble for co-or­di­nat­ing the fes­ti­val, is cur­rent­ly fi­nal­is­ing arrange­ments to resched­ule the cer­e­mo­ny ho­n­our­ing the pi­o­neers who have ded­i­cat­ed their lives to the sport.

Among those to be ho­n­oured is the fa­ther of goat rac­ing, Samuel Cal­len­der.

Cal­len­der was born in Bar­ba­dos but lat­er mi­grat­ed to To­ba­go, where he be­came an in­te­gral part of the goat rac­ing fra­ter­ni­ty, giv­ing birth to the goat race it­self.

He died in 1986 at the age of 97.