VXE’s ‘Guardians’ are marching to Crop Over 2026

Ilaro Court was transformed into the Golden Realm on Sunday, March 22nd, for Daylight, Vida by Esquire’s official band launch for their Crop Over 2026 theme Ichirou: Guardians of Heritage. 

From 3PM, towering stilt walkers welcomed hundreds of eager patrons to the venue to catch a glimpse of the band’s highly anticipated follow up to 2025’s ‘Soaring Songbirds’. 

“Every year we prioritise paying tribute to Barbados with our costumes,” said Janelle ‘Jin’ Forde, lead designer of Vida by Esquire (VXE). “And this continues with Ichirou. The overall idea we had during our brainstorm last year was towards protecting certain facets of culture through an exchange of knowledge with our patrons. So we paid homage to that with a twist on the line from our national anthem and playing off of the indigenous name of our island.”

A band of classical musicians and a choir, led by conductor Dereck Marshall, started off the presentation with orchestral renditions of various road march winning songs like ‘We Want More’ by the Mighty Grynner and “Juck Fuh Juck” by Serenader.

The pouring rains outside couldn’t cool down the scorching cat walk as the VXE Vixens hit the stage to showcase the seven sections: ANDROMEDA, PARAGON, BATHSHEBA, POMELO, DOO FLICKY, ROTUNDA and THREE W’s. 

Rapturous applause from the excited audience welcomed each model as they strutted their stuff around the chattel house-inspired DJ booth sitting in the middle of the runway. 

“We’re wrapping Barbadian heritage into our designs to invite persons in and out of the band to find out more about our culture, and what it means in the grand scheme of who we are,” said Forde. “For example, with POMELO we pay tribute to the grapefruit because a lot of people don’t know it was made in Welchman Hall Gully.” 

Jin, who is fresh from a trip in March promoting Crop Over and VXE in Kenya, is not only excited for the 2024 Large Band of the Year’s 4th time on the road, but for its lead up to Mega Monday. 

“It’s a long way to Kadooment but we have various executions to keep everyone engaged – like our Summer Sweat Series, Pop up parties and other things we want to keep close to our chest,” she said. “But just know that everything we do will be about celebrating our home, celebrating our people, and giving credit to our culture wherever we go.” (PR)