In Cat Island’s Rake & Scrape tradition, a carpenter’s saw becomes a melody instrument, played with a screwdriver or nail along its ridged edge — a sound that defines Bahamian folk music more distinctly than any other.
On a June weekend in Arthur’s Town, that saw rasp cuts through the salt air alongside goatskin drums and accordion wheezes. The occasion is the annual Rake & Scrape Festival, a three-day event that grew out of a practical worry: that younger Bahamians might stop learning the music their grandparents played. What began as a local effort to keep a tradition alive now draws modest crowds from across the archipelago and beyond. This article examines how Rake & Scrape works as music, as festival, and as a living piece of Bahamian cultural identity — and what it actually takes to participate.
Rake & Scrape is not a museum-piece revival but a tradition still contested and evolving. The festival at Arthur’s Town showcases bands that argue among themselves about what counts as “authentic” — some insisting on handmade goatskin drums and carpenter saws, others mixing in electric bass and keyboards. Neither side is wrong; the tension itself is the tradition.
The Rake & Scrape Festival runs June 4–6, 2026, timed to the Bahamas’ Labour Day weekend, in the town square near Arthur’s Town Airport on Cat Island. Crowds typically number in the low thousands — small enough that visitors can talk with musicians between sets.
| Element | Details | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Music style | Rake & Scrape | Handmade instruments, syncopated rhythm, call-and-response vocals |
| Core instruments | Carpenter’s saw (played as violin), goombay drum, accordion, maracas | Every instrument carries history of resourcefulness and African-diaspora adaptation |
| Festival location | Arthur’s Town, Cat Island | Named for Sir Arthur Foulkes, former Governor-General; town square near airport |
| Festival dates | June 4–6, 2026 (Labour Day weekend) | Three days: daytime dominoes, crafts, food; evenings with bands and dancing |
| Key events | Battle of the Rake & Scrape Bands, quadrille dancing, gospel concert | Band competition is the centerpiece; quadrille recalls colonial-era dance forms |
| Community impact | Scholarship fund for local high school graduate | Part of festival proceeds goes to education — a deliberate link between culture and future |
The instruments that define a sound
Rake & Scrape’s name comes from the motion of playing the saw — a raking or scraping action along the toothed edge. The musician holds the saw between their knees, bends the blade to change pitch, and draws a screwdriver or nail file across the teeth. The result is a percussive, nasal tone that cuts through the drum and accordion without amplification. It is not a sound most listeners encounter outside the Bahamas.
The goombay drum — a goatskin head stretched over a barrel-shaped wooden body — provides the rhythm. Its name likely derives from an African language group, possibly from the Bantu ngoma, meaning drum or dance. The accordion, introduced through European contact, fills the harmonic space. Maracas, often made from dried gourds or plastic containers filled with seeds, add the upper-register rattle. Together these instruments produce a music that is simultaneously raw and structured, improvisational within clear rhythmic boundaries.
At the festival’s craft market, musicians sometimes sell handmade goombay drums. If you buy one, ask the maker to show you how the head is stretched and tuned — the process varies by family and village, and that variation is part of what distinguishes one band’s sound from another.
The question of what counts as a “real” Rake & Scrape instrument remains unresolved. Some Cat Island bands insist on saws made by specific Bahamian blacksmiths, now hard to find. Others argue the instrument matters less than the rhythmic feel. The festival’s Battle of the Rake & Scrape Bands judges on both musical skill and adherence to tradition — though the definition of tradition shifts year to year.
What the festival actually looks like
The Rake & Scrape Festival begins each day with breakfast in the park — typically local dishes like conch fritters, johnnycake, and fresh fruit. By late morning, dominoes and checkers games fill the tables under shade structures. The pace is deliberately slow. The festival was designed, according to organizers, to feel like a community gathering rather than a produced event. By evening, the main stage becomes the focus: bands compete, quadrille dancers perform patterned steps that trace back to 18th-century European court dances adapted in the Caribbean, and a gospel concert closes the final night.
The quadrille dancing is worth particular attention. It is not a casual performance: dancers train for months, and the calls that direct the figures are given in a Bahamian Creole that itself encodes regional history. Some figures have names that reference plantation-era social hierarchies; others recall African circle dances blended into European forms. Dressed in white or pastel outfits, dancers move through four distinct figures — the paseo, figure, chorus, and grand chain — each with its own footwork and timing.
The festival’s scholarship component is often overlooked by visitors but central to its purpose. Proceeds fund one local high school graduate’s further education. The amount varies year to year but typically covers a semester’s tuition at a Bahamian institution. Organizers describe the scholarship as an intentional counterweight to the idea that folk culture belongs to the past — the music funds the future.
The common misconception that Rake & Scrape is a tourist invention. It is not. The music predates the Bahamas tourism industry by generations. The festival itself is a relatively recent effort (early 2000s) to formally celebrate a tradition that had been informal and home-based. The festival commodifies it, yes — but the music existed long before the first visitor heard it.
Cat Island as a cultural crossroads
Cat Island lies roughly 130 miles southeast of Nassau, reached by Bahamasair or Western Air flights into Arthur’s Town or New Bight. The island’s population is small — estimated under 1,500 — and its economy relies on fishing, some farming, and modest tourism. This isolation is precisely why Rake & Scrape survived here when it faded in more connected parts of the Bahamas. Without mass tourism or a major resort presence, family-based music-making remained central to community life.
The island also holds the physical remains of Bahamian history: plantation ruins from the Loyalist period, blue holes used in Lucayan Taíno rituals, and Mount Alvernia’s Hermitage monastery. These sites do not directly connect to the Rake & Scrape tradition, but they create a context in which visitors can understand the layered history that produced the music. The festival organizers sometimes offer guided tours that link these sites to the musical tradition, though the connection is more geographical than causal.
Visitors who stay at Rollezz Villas Beach Resort on Old Bight Beach — the island’s top boutique property, with roughly 10 standalone villas — can arrange bonefishing, snorkeling, and island tours through the owner Carl, who also cooks nightly dinners using produce from the property’s gardens. Reservations are recommended, especially during festival weekend. The resort recently added a beach bar and two new two-bedroom villas.
A note on travel logistics: regional flight schedules in the Out Islands are fluid. Flights can be delayed or cancelled on short notice. Build in buffer days on either side of the festival, and arrive at the airport early.
Context & comparison: Rake & Scrape and Bahamian festival traditions
Rake & Scrape shares DNA with other Bahamian music forms but occupies a distinct place in the cultural landscape. It is less commercial than Junkanoo, less exportable than goombay, and more tied to a single island’s social fabric. The following table compares Rake & Scrape with Junkanoo, the Bahamas’ best-known festival tradition, across several attributes.
| Attribute | Rake & Scrape | Junkanoo |
|---|---|---|
| Primary instruments | Saw, goombay drum, accordion, maracas | Goat-skin drums, cowbells, whistles, horns |
| Performance setting | Small community gatherings, seated audiences | Parade, streets, large moving crowds |
| Costume tradition | Minimal; everyday clothing or matching band colors | Elaborate handmade paper-and-cardboard costumes, headdresses |
| Origins | African-diaspora adaptation of European folk instruments | West African masquerade traditions merged with colonial-era festivities |
| Commercial reach | Mostly unknown outside Bahamas; no recording industry | Tourist events worldwide; recordings by Bahamian artists |
| Generational participation | Dominated by older musicians; younger interest is reviving | Intergenerational; youth groups compete in categories |
The term “rake and scrape” itself may come from the saw’s scraping action, but some Bahamian music scholars have pointed to an alternate etymology: the “rake” as a dance step and “scrape” as a foot-drag, both referring to movement rather than instrument technique. No single origin story has been settled. This ambiguity is typical of vernacular traditions that were not written down until recent decades.
Another useful comparison is with goombay music, which shares the goombay drum but typically uses more European instrumentation (brass, piano, guitars) and a smoother, more produced sound. Goombay became popular in Nassau’s hotels in the mid-20th century; Rake & Scrape remained rural and largely unrecorded. In that sense, Rake & Scrape represents a less mediated version of Bahamian folk expression — not because it is more “authentic,” but because it was less shaped by tourism industry demands.
It is tempting to frame Rake & Scrape as “pure” or “untouched” Bahamian culture because it uses handmade instruments and stays outside the commercial mainstream. That framing is itself a romantic projection. The music has always incorporated outside influences — the accordion is European, the quadrille is derived from French court dances, and modern bands sometimes use amplifiers. The idea of purity is the misconception, not the tradition’s value.
- Rake & Scrape is one of the Bahamas’ oldest continuous folk music traditions, centered on Cat Island but not exclusive to it.
- The Rake & Scrape Festival in Arthur’s Town offers a rare chance to hear multiple bands in competition and to see quadrille dancing rooted in colonial-era social dance.
- The tradition is internally contested — debates about instrument sourcing, electric amplification, and repertoire are part of the music’s living character, not signs of decline.
- Cat Island’s isolation helped preserve the tradition but also limits access; travel requires flexibility and advance planning.
- The festival’s scholarship fund explicitly connects cultural preservation to educational opportunity — a detail that challenges the notion that folk traditions are backward-looking.
Questions readers ask about Cat Island’s folk music
Do I need to know music to enjoy the festival?
Not at all. The festival is designed as a community event, not a specialist conference. Many attendees come for the food, dominoes, and general atmosphere. That said, the Battle of the Rake & Scrape Bands is genuinely competitive, and bands play for hometown pride as much as prize money.
Is the saw dangerous to play?
The saw’s teeth face away from the player, and the instrument is typically played seated with the blade between the knees. Skilled players can bend the saw to produce glissandos without injury. That said, it is a real carpenter’s tool, not a manufactured music instrument — children are usually taught with a blunted saw or a dedicated practice model.
How is Rake & Scrape different from what I’d hear in Nassau?
Nassau’s live music scene leans heavily toward rake and scrape-influenced goombay, soca, and reggae — all genres that incorporate electric instruments, production, and tourism-friendly arrangements. Cat Island’s Rake & Scrape is acoustic or minimally amplified, with a rougher texture and a slower tempo that matches the island’s pace of life.
Is the festival appropriate for children?
Yes. The festival includes a dedicated children’s corner with games, and daytime hours are family-oriented. Evening events run later and include adult social drinking, but the atmosphere remains community-scale and low-key. The scholarship component also makes the festival an explicit investment in young people’s futures.
Can I record or photograph the bands?
Yes, with common courtesy. Most musicians are happy to be photographed during performances. Recording a full set without permission is frowned upon. The Battle of the Rake & Scrape Bands is sometimes filmed by local media; amateur recording is generally allowed as long as it does not disrupt the audience.
The living sound of Cat Island
Rake & Scrape does not need preservation in the sense of being frozen. It needs the opposite: room to change while still being recognized as itself. The festival in Arthur’s Town provides that room — a space where the same saw that cuts lumber on Monday becomes a melody instrument on Saturday, and where the audience includes both elders who remember when every family had a band and children who will decide what the tradition becomes next. That continuity, not any fixed set of instruments or songs, is what makes the music matter.
For more on how Bahamian festivals shape community identity, read about the Junkanoo tradition and its role in Bahamian cultural life.
Sources and further reading
Caribbean Journal. “The Rake & Scrape Festival on Cat Island.” 2026. 🔗
Rollezz Villas Beach Resort. “Cat Island Festival Guide.” 2026. 🔗
Related reading on IslandHopperGuides
Rake ‘n’ Scrape: Discovering the Soulful Sounds of Bahamian Music — A deeper dive into the music’s structure, notable bands, and recording history.
Songs and Stories: The Rich Tapestry of Bahamian Oral Traditions — How Bahamian folk music connects to storytelling and oral history.
Beyond the Tourist Trail: Experiencing True Bahamian Hospitality in Local Communities — Practical guidance for engaging respectfully with Bahamian communities beyond resort areas.
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