Some of them sipped drinks and ate food from Styrofoam containers. Other chatted or took photos.

At about 2 p.m., the VG Easter Monday Parade lurched into action, led by a Ford Explorer pick-up truck carrying Grand Marshall Steve Green: Bedecked in a full suit of armour and sitting in a wooden chair in the back, Mr. Green grinned and waved stiffly to a cheering crowd.

Then came a convertible Mustang and another pick-up truck carrying pageant winners, including Miss BVI Leilani Stevens and Festival Queen Sierra Christian, and Calypso Monarch Queen Makisha, who took first place in the festival’s calypso competition on Sunday night.

The parade’s first troupe, The Jesters, was made up of more than a dozen children wearing brightly coloured clothes and jester hats; they were flanked by three boys on balloon-bedecked bicycles. As judges watched from the balcony of the Wheelhouse Ocean View Hotel, the troupe performed a choreographed dance.

Over the course of the afternoon, four more children’s troupes and 10 adult troupes would perform, in what organisers and residents said was the most successful parade the VG festival had seen in years.

The event grew in part because of the contributions of sponsors, including the Department of Education and Culture, said Annetta Williams, public relations officer for the VG Festival Committee. The support enabled the committee to provide vehicles for the parade and music from the Showtime Band, of Tortola, the Jam Session Band of VG, and Onyan, of Antigua, she added.

The rest of the festival—which included a cultural village on Friday, music performances each night, and an early morning “J’ouvert” on Monday—was similarly successful, Ms. Williams said, though official attendance numbers were unavailable as of press time.

“All the nights, all the events were well-attended. Despite the rain, people actually turned out,” she said, adding that a first-time reggae night on Monday, headlining Jamaican artist Daville, was particularly popular.

See full story in the March 27, 2008 issue of The BVI Beacon.