PreviousWelcome to Festival Place
WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2007
Welcome to Festival Place
True-true Bahamian foods, crafts and souvenirs
You can't miss Festival Place. It's the vibrant pink, blue, yellow, purple, orange, rose, green and white building on Prince George Wharf just behind Rawson Square in the heart of Nassau.
It's the first place cruise ship passengers see as they stroll up to historic Bay Street with its many fine stores, just a block away, and the busy Straw Market, a short walk to the west, next door to the British Colonial Hilton hotel.
While it's Nassau's official welcoming centre for shipboard tourists, Festival Place also brings in a steady stream of guests from resorts and hotels around Nassau, Cable Beach and Paradise Island.
It's not hard to see why. The 40-plus small shops and kiosks within this colourful building offer a wide selection of high-quality, truly Bahamian handicrafts, mementos, foods and services. It's the perfect place to pick up ?true-true? Bahamian souvenirs to take to family and friends who are sadly stuck back in the land of ice and snow.
If you really want to rub it in, there's a full-service post office in the building where you can mail off ?wish you were here? postcards. The branch offers a full range of services: regular and registered mail or high-speed delivery. You can also pick up colourful and collectible Bahamian postage stamps.
A communications centre offers payphones, phonecards, Internet access and Wi-Fi along with operator services, fax and telegram facilities.
At the tour desk you can find maps, guides and the Bahamas Handbook and Businessman's Annual?which is the last word in up-to-date information about this country. You?ll find everything you need to know about land- and water-based tours, scooter rentals, taxi and ferry information, and where to go for a massage, hair braiding and beauty services.
A new look for Nassau
Designed by award-winning Bahamian architect Jackson Burnside and managed by the Ministry of Tourism, Festival Place is an indoor village with streets and squares named after islands and towns around the Bahama islands. You might, for example, find yourself wandering along Settler's Way (a street in Grand Bahama), Queen's Highway (there are several of these in the Out Islands) and Andros Avenue (named after our largest island). There?s even a Town Hall.
The ambience is evocative of the time when Bahamian artisans and craftspeople quietly practiced their arts in small towns throughout the archipelago, and then brought their work to Nassau for sale to visitors.
If you drop in to Festival Place on Tuesday, Friday or Saturday there?s an even more festive atmosphere to enjoy, with dancing and hand clapping to live music at New Bight Square (named after a town on Cat Island).
As you stroll through the blissfully air-conditioned indoor village, take a good look around. This building may be the first step in a huge downtown redevelopment project that will open up Nassau?s harbourfront to pedestrian traffic. Plans include a waterside boardwalk stretching about a mile from the British Colonial Hilton east to Potter?s Cay, located under the exit bridge from Paradise Island.
Creativity and diversity
If you?re unaware of the creativity of Bahamians, and the diversity of their gifts and souvenirs, Festival Place will be an eye-opener.
In the Harl Taylor BAG shop, for example, you?ll see exclusive women?s handbags by the world- famous designer.
Taylor studied fashion in Paris and produces bags for stores like Manhattan?s Bergdorf Goodman. He lists Queen Elizabeth, Oprah Winfrey, Elle Macpherson and Barbara Walters among his clientele.
Some of the handbags feature a dozen colours in contrasting weave patterns and are decorated with polished conch shells and mahogany turtles. However, Harl also offers simple but beautifully-made handbags in very affordable styles.
At other shops you?ll see authentic sisal and palm-top hats, bags and other items, evidence of a recent renewal of interest in the art of plaiting.
Bahamians are reawakening to the natural beauty of articles made of sisal and palmetto leaves, sold mostly as souvenirs.
In 2005, the Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) began offering courses in plaiting. The courses, held on islands such as Andros and Eleuthera, have drawn students ranging in age from 20 to 70, many of whom quit full-time jobs to pursue the craft.
More than straw work
Artisans and tradespersons offer authentic Bahamian-made souvenirs and craft items, Bahamian entertainment, food and desserts.
Try a Bahamian-blended tea that incorporates island fruit flavours, look for a colourful quilt, check out one of the paintings by a Bahamian artist, and do try one of the delicious coconut and pineapple tarts offered for sale.
Chic Bahamian fashions, unusual T-shirt designs and one-of-a-kind rings and necklaces are all here. You?ll also find intricate fish scale and seashell jewellery.
For the kitchen there are hand-mixed island spices and pure salt from the sea. Local cooks are delighted to share recipes for jerk pork or chicken, johnny cake and guava duff?a Bahamian?s favourite dessert.
There is no room to list all the shops and the hundreds of items offered for sale in Festival Place, but here are a few, chosen at random.
? At Caribbean Manufacturing, look for an array of marine reef sculptures, magnets and other collectables. Each item is one of a kind.
? Farja Bahama offers a selection of sterling silver jewellery including pendants, earrings and chains.
? At Mango Arts, artist Carlington Evans offers affordable reproductions of his vibrant acrylic and oil paintings.
? My Ocean began as a home-based soap crafting business, the vision of two sisters, Tanya and Helen Klonaris. It?s now the largest maker of hand-rolled glycerin soaps in The Bahamas. My Ocean also offers Bahamian bath salts with coconut oil and hibiscus as well as tangerine oil and calendula flowers, and handcrafted woodwork sourced from local Bahamian artisans.
? When it comes to shell jewellery Miralee Rose at Miragee Arts is an expert at making handcrafted beaded jewellery and necklaces, bracelets, earrings and anklets made from conch shell and pink sand from Eleuthera and Cat Island. She also offers shell dolls, which may include up to 200 shells.
? At Alliyah Leather Craft, find sandals, charms, bookmarks, belts and key chains, all made by Geleta Wilson, who is known for her sandals, the most popular item at her booth.
? Greg Bullard is the mastermind behind craft items made of pine
cones and seashells as well as authentic Bahamian prints. His speciality is a pine cone angel called ?Gussy.?
Sidebar:
Jackson L Burnside III
Festival Place architect Jackson Burnside III is the owner of Jackson Burnside Limited and Doongalik Studios in Nassau, where customers drop by to look for Bahamian prints and Junkanoo designs.
Educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and the university?s Graduate School of Fine Arts, Burnside has worked closely with renowned architect Louis Kahn in Bangladesh, Iran, Israel and England, as well as in The Bahamas. He is a much-sought-after lecturer around the world.
He has designed several beautiful seaside homes around Nassau, all exemplifying Bahamian architectural themes, as well as many commercial establishments around the islands.
Aside from Festival Place, JBL also designed the $130-million Marina Village at Atlantis, the 65,000-square-foot marketplace and recreation area surrounding the resort?s main marina. The Village has three main plazas hosting restaurants and shops patronized by locals as well as visitors.
At both places, Burnside uses vivid colours and traditional features?such as Bahamian shutters (hinged at the top), balconies and balustrades?which lend an open, breezy look to both locations.
As Burnside is quick to point out, Festival Place and Marina Village are the handiwork of several Bahamian professionals, which demonstrate the high level of expertise and creativity that exist in The Bahamas.
Burnside has been involved in studies and committees struck to make recommendations for the full-scale restoration of historic Nassau.
Burnside, who is also a well-known artist, is a supporter of Bahamian culture, especially with respect to the ongoing evolution of Junkanoo. He is Chairman Emeritus and a designer for the One Family Junkanoo group.
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