St George Market Nights
A Heritage Celebration in Bermuda
NO LONGER HELD
Market Night in St. George is something like a traditional festival in the island. It's held every Tuesday evening at
King's Square and starts generally at 7:00 p.m. between May to August. It is organized by a group of business owners in the town.
You can experience some great local entertainment, buy arts and crafts and an assortment of locally made products. About 50 vendors set up their stalls and fill the Square with their bright and unusual handmade items. The evening atmosphere becomes live with Island music.
At 7:30 p.m. a strange thing happens. The St. George’s Town Crier, elaborately attired, opens the evening. He ducks a nagging wench into the waters of the Harbor to mark this opening. This entertaining and light-hearted historical re-enactment shows how an offender was publicly punished in the 18th century.
Then you will see the arrival of the
Gombey dancers. They begin their rhythmic traditional dance with drumming that pulls people magnetically into the square. More live entertainment follows. Each week features different entertainment from steel bands to cultural dancers.
To add to this wonderfully festive evening, food vendors offer all sorts of goodies, homemade cookies, baked cakes and good old fashioned snowballs.
One of the charming flavors of the Market Night is that you can have friendly chat with the vendors. They will tell you how they make stuff like codfish cakes, or ginger beer and what is so unique about Bermuda honey.
Quite often you will see vendors competing with their preparations of Bermuda Fish Chowder. Try out some of the island specials like the local cassava pie, shark hash, fish cakes, loquat jam, bay grape jelly, codfish cakes, mussel pie or guava syllabub.
Children can make mock tattoos, or buy balloons or even go for face paintings. You will see replicas of the Stocks and Pillory at the square that were once used to punish petty criminals.
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 By Raj Bhattacharya
Raj, a seasoned travel writer and Bermuda destination expert, has extensive global travel experience. This website reflects his profound insights, garnered over nearly two decades of dedicated findings and research on the island. Raj has assisted countless Bermuda-bound visitors by providing direct, personalized responses to their queries and imparting his wealth of knowledge through this platform. This site serves as an indispensable guide for those seeking informed and reliable insights into Bermuda's treasures.
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