As St. Croix gets ready for the 60th anniversary of the Crucian Christmas Festival, the Tourism Department on Monday announced that Kevil Alexis King, a Manor School 10th-grader, won the department’s festival poster contest.
To mark the 60th anniversary and engage young Virgin Islanders in the celebration, the department invited students ages 14 to 18 to illustrate what the Crucian Christmas Festival means to them.
King will be awarded $500 and her school will receive a $500 donation for use by the art department. A limited-edition poster will be professionally printed with the winning art to help promote Festival events.
The department launched both locally and abroad a series of marketing initiatives to promote the milestone celebration.
"The 60th Anniversary of the St. Croix Festival is shaping up to be one of the grandest events in Festival history," Tourism Commissioner Beverly Nicholson Doty said. "In support of Crucian Festival we want to invite the world to visit St. Croix for this milestone occasion to experience the best of V.I. culture while enjoying our resorts, beaches, duty-free shopping and world-class attractions."
The Crucian Christmas Festival 60th Anniversary Celebration package is available exclusively through US Airways and American Airlines vacations. Travelers who book the package will save $400 on their airfare and hotel accommodations, and upon hotel check-in, will receive a $50 dining certificate and a Festival gift bag filled with commemorative 60th anniversary souvenirs. The package is available for booking now through Dec. 1 for travel between Dec. 27 and Jan. 12.
To promote the offer, the Tourism Department launched an advertising campaign in East Coast African American and Caribbean newspapers that will run through Nov. 14. The department has also forged an exclusive digital partnership with TravelZoo to promote the offer on its web site.
St. Croix is currently featured as the Travel Zoo "Destination of the Week" with a custom page that includes details of the promotion, images and links to the Virgin Islands site. Consumers can access the microsite through Top 20 Deal Search until Nov. 30.
Once on island, both visitors and locals can enjoy an evening of entertainment in the Festival Village on Dec. 30 sponsored by the Tourism Department in honor of the 60th anniversary. The lineup includes the Rising Stars Steel Pan Orchestra, performances by quelbe and old time scratch bands, and cultural dancers performing quadrille, Latin, Dominican and St. Lucian dance routines. Music in Motion dance troupe as well as the Sleepless Mocko Jumbies will entertain before the evening tops off with the Lashing Dogs Band.
Local radio personalities DJ Pops and Rashidi will rally the crowds with more music and Virgin Islands giveaways, while fashion lovers can enjoy the cultural wear queen fashion show planned during the evening.
Doty invites “the entire community down to the village for this evening of music, dance, fashion and camaraderie."
For more information about the Crucian Christmas Festival 60th Anniversary Celebration package visit http://www.visitusvi.com/package_and_promotions.
