Cashew Festival opens this weekend in Crooked Tree

This weekend won’t be another long one but that hasn’t stopped the villagers of Crooked Tree from making sure this year’s Cashew Festival is packed with activities. Things get started on Friday night with the picking of the cashew queen and over the next two days a softball marathon and the Cashew Cycling Classic is planned to entertain the masses. Festival coordinator Dean Tillett says while the event’s main focus is still on the cashew crop, attracting tourists to the village is a big part of the picture.

Dean Tillett, Coordinator, Crooked Tree Festival

“Being a tourist village, Crooked Tree, we’re trying to promote this on a higher level as far as tourism is concerned. So we’re catering not only to locals but it’s also a festival whereby we’ve seen a lot of tourist in attendance.”

“This year, as I have mentioned, it should be different because there are certain groups and organizations that promote agriculture, livestock, and various cultural groups that were not hosted, that were not present in previous years. We’re hoping to have them this year and even so, we have put one of Belize’s leading radio station, KREM, and their team of performers that they usually take to festivals and we’re hoping to have more cultural presentations involved in the festival.”

Janelle Chanona

“How many people are you preparing to host?”

Dean Tillett, Coordinator

“Well looking at last figures, we probably did have figures as much as 8,000 and this was on the Sunday. We’re hoping to make this even 10, if that is so possible.”

This is the 8th year Crooked Tree Village has held the Cashew Festival.