ABSTRACT
Summer is Festival season in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) , a British Dependent Territory in the eastern Caribbean. In preparation for this annual event commemorating the August 1, 1834 emancipation of slaves in the British West Indies, people throughout the BVII organize parade troupes, parties, and family reunions; calypsonians compose songs to perform in Festival competitions; and various private and civic groups step up their preparations for the beauty and talent contests that proliferate during Festival. Throughout the Caribbean, festivals provide rich occasions for performances and symbolic representations that reflect and comment on issues of widespread concern (Abrahams 1983; Manning 1977, 1978; Miller 1994; Stewart 1986). In the BVI, Festival's eventsand occasional crises-are key arenas for articulating and negotiating the complexities oflife in a country engaged in constituting itself as a national community with its own distinctive culture and identity.2 In what follows, I look at some of the ways that beauty contests held during BVI Festival are engaged in the project to construct BVI national identity as well as to raise challenges to this project.
