From Cayman Islands Pirates Week

The Pirates Week Festival – the largest annual event in the Cayman Islands – is celebrating its 40th Anniversary!

The theme this year is “Treasures of Change”.

Drawing over 35,000 patrons each year, the islands are transformed into a mass of colour and revelry, with more than 30 different events being hosted over three weekends, on all three islands!

This year, the festivities will start off in Cayman Brac (Nov 3-5), then move to Grand Cayman (Nov 9 – 13), and close in Little Cayman (Nov 17 – 19).

The most famous of the Pirates Week festivities is the Landing Pageant and Float Parade, which takes place in the capital of George Town in Grand Cayman. Thousands of spectators line the streets to watch a mock take-over of the island by a band of fighting pirates, who come ashore by pirate ship, at Hog Sty Bay! This is followed by a glittering parade, street dances, and fireworks.

You can expect to enjoy an abundance of crafts, music, culture, sporting events, lively steel pan, song and costume competitions, special kids activities and of course delicious local island food!

With the main festival events being combined into five days in Grand Cayman, including the newly COMBINED DISTRICT DAY, both tourists and visitors are sure to garner the full Cayman experience the festival has to offer!

The new CULTURE JAM competition will also take place on Saturday, November 11, from 7:30PM – 9:00PM. Talent from the categories of dance, music and theatre will jam it out on stage, to compete for the 1st prize of $2,000!

The idea of the Pirates Week Festival was first conceived in 1977 as a way to attract tourists to Cayman during slow season, and to boost the local economy. Today, it has grown into the National Festival of the Cayman Islands, and is much more than a tourist attraction. To the generation that has grown up with Pirates Week, it is almost like Christmas, and something to look forward to each year.

The tentative schedule is attached here, and is also available on our website:www.piratesweekfestival.com (still a working progress..)

For more information, or to get involved, please email the team at [email protected]
or [email protected]

We look forward to celebrating the 40th anniversary with YOU!

IMAGES: Pirates Week