A Day at The Welches Festival in Anguilla

 
 

If you love Anguilla for its people, its culture, and its traditional food...

If you can appreciate a little warmth, the sounds of a scratch and string band, and like being amidst people for all ages...

And if you can tear yourself away from Anguilla's crystal clear Caribbean waters for a day...

Then you should make plans to attend the Welches Festival held in Anguilla each year around Memorial Day in the US and Whit Monday in Anguilla.

Click play below for Welches Fest 2026...

What and Where is the Welches Festival?

Started in 2008, the Welches Festival is a celebration of Anguilla culture. A key goal of the event is to share and educate people, especially the local youth, on some of the old and traditional ways of doing things in Anguilla.

The Welches Festival gets its name from the village in Anguilla that it takes place in - Welches.

Local Sweet Treats

Welches village in the eastern half of Anguilla, inland, and (if you are looking at an Anguilla map) is north of Long Pond/Sandy Hill and is southwest of Island Harbour and southeast of Shoal Bay.

It's easy to get to and doesn't require an off-road vehicle… it takes place in a field which sits on a main road that cuts through Welches.

The festival begins in the morning with breakfast and carries on into the evening with food, music and cultural performances throughout the day.

Welches Festival 101

As you enter the field at The Welches, you'll note, there is no admission fee. Lovely!

Tip: Some booths use the tickets in exchange for their amazing local, traditionally cooked food. The ticket selling booth lists how much items cost and how many tickets certain items require.

Price List in 2026

Doing Things The Traditional Way

You may be asking yourself, "But why would I want to eat this traditional food? There are so many delicious options in Anguilla."

Well… how often do you get to experience (even in Anguilla) meals cooked using no electricity and no gas? Not often unless you are grabbing something from a roadside BBQ.

Fire-oven Baked Johnny Cakes

Festival cooks wake before sunrise to prepare most of the food outdoors over firewood and hot rocks, just as it was done generations ago before modern conveniences.

They cook johnny cakes, souse, corn soup, yard fowl soup, fried fish, stew chicken, guinea corn porridge... the list could go on.

Fried Johnny Cakes

Local, homemade drinks of mauby and lemonade are available.

Everything is made from scratch and tended to with care and time.

Handmade Johnny Cakes

I had a bowl of flavorful corn soup, and a johnny cake with butter. I can report they were both out of this world.

Candy that older generations grew up enjoying called "sham" can be found at The Welches Festival too - another treat.

Perhaps one of my favorite treats are the conkie dumplings...

These dumplings are a sweet, traditional Caribbean cornmeal delicacy. I remember my first time having one - made by my grandmother, it was my favorite sweet treat growing up in Anguilla.

Everyone makes them differently - some with grated pumpkin, sweet potato, coconut and different spices, the dough is wrapped in foil or banana leaves and steamed.

Beyond the rare opportunity to enjoy traditionally prepared food, you also experience a deep sense of pride and happiness that surrounds Anguillian people, especially the older generations.

It seems those of us who love all aspects of Anguilla, find festivals like this (and like Festival del Mar) are so important and necessary. This way everyone, especially the Anguillian youth who are the first generations growing up with the distraction of television and the internet, can get a closer and celebratory look at where they come from and be proud of the happy, hardworking, and resilient ways of their ancestors.

You'll hear this sentiment earnestly ring from the mouths of the older generations of Anguillians and from caring outsiders.

This concern is a motivator for the Welches Festival to be all that it is and more. The happy reaction that it is being addressed during a day like the Welches Festival contributes to the jolly astmosphere.

Music and Dancing at The Welches Festival

The aforementioned spirit that you pick up on at the Welches Festival is fueled by the charming sounds of live scratch bands.

I wandered over to the tent where an organized group were harmoniously playing everything from a banjo, a washpan, and a cow bell, while singing old Anguillian songs.

Children and adults, moving their hips and feet to the rhythm.

The spirit is so infectious that another group of musicians formed their own semi-circle just outside the tent, quickly drawing a crowd.”

This inner field area also gave way to some games throughout the day, including a tug-of-war contest that I caught the tail end of.

The festival goal seems to be working so far...

Smiles all around.

Old Anguillian spirit in the air.

This is The Welches Festival and it is Anguilla.