CRICKET and culture often make a good mix. Just take a trek down to Kensington Oval to find out.
On the fringes of the famed cricket ground is a “village” which aims to rekindle some local traditions.
Four chattel houses form the central component of the Village Experience, which offers a dining experience in a cultural setting.
It has two restaurants while activities include dominoes evenings and karaoke nights.
Down the road, there are plans to add more of a local taste with the additions of a standpipe, a basketball ring, hopscotch, warri and card games.
The man behind Village Experience is Eric Springer, who developed the idea out of a stall he ran previously at Spring Garden during Crop Over.
“I’m a culture freak. I grew up ‘old school’. We’ve drifted so far from our culture into the commercial side and we don’t have a lot to speak of culture,” he said.
“If I leave my country and go to somebody else’s place, I don’t want to eat Bajan food, I want to eat the native food, I want to see the culture, I want to see what they have to offer.”
He contends that when tourists visit these shores, they want to get a feel of what Barbados has to offer.
In some instances, however, he argues that not enough is being done in this regard.
“When tourists come here, they are experiencing the same thing they are getting when they leave their country. Most tourists don’t want to come here to experience what they have, they want to experience something different,” he said.
“That is why when they come here, they ask for the most strategic point, which is Kensington Oval. They do a tour, take pictures of Sir Garfield Sobers (statue). They want to see iconic stuff in Barbados, real chattel houses, they want to come here and see people playing dominoes and draughts and experience how they could play those games. They want to be involved in our culture.”
The Village Experience has been open for three months and Springer said it was by chance that he got the opportunity to bring it to Kensington after a colleague connected him with the chief executive officer at Kensington Oval Management Inc.
He was initially targeting an area in Gun Hill, St George, but after plans fell through, Kensington became an option.
“When I came out here and I was asked what can you do, my mind went the full throttle,” Springer said.
“People could not understand what I wanted to do. I could see the vision but other people couldn’t. A couple months later, we are here. It isn’t finished yet. There is still a lot of stuff that we have to put in. The front of each stall still has to put in artwork like how old Bridgetown used to look in the day.”
Village Experience wasn’t the original name Springer picked but it came about after he found out his original choice was already in use when he went to register the business.
His thinking behind the name was simple – when people visit a village, they must enjoy an experience.
“When you come in here, you get a nice ambience, the nice feeling the village has to offer. We want to make it about 80 per cent close to a real village in terms of culture. We still need a lot of help. We need corporate sponsors to come on board to make it the brand that it is supposed to be,” Springer said.
“People tell me I shouldn’t say this but we are catering for more experienced people who want a place to help relive some moments that you haven’t had in years.”
Village Experience is managed by popular entertainer Toni Norville, who is excited about the potential it has to offer.
She revealed a company, 3Ds Boss Entertainment, had been established to help develop the entertainment aspect of the village.
“It’s been coming very good. We’ve got lots of work to do. We want to make things as affordable for our customers and always give them the very best,” she said.
“We travel all around the world and we know how it should be done. We want to bring a piece of what we’ve seen.”
