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2016/2017 Events in Bermuda

Bermuda Special Events
Bermuda Cupmatch
Bermuda holidays
Bermuda events

Come down to Bermuda for any of our special events or holidays. Many of the hotels will help you celebrate traditional holidays and you’ll really feel like a local making kites or eating fishcakes on hot cross buns.

Recurring Events

St. Georges Historical Re-Enactments

April 1, 2015 – March 30, 2016 – Thursday & Saturday, Starts at 12:00 pm. Taking place in King’s Square you will see Bermuda’s history unfold in front of your eyes as you witness how punishments were carried out hundreds of years ago. During the free show you will see a criminal get dunked in the water for their crimes. Admission is free.

Harbour Nights

Every Wednesday from 7:00 – 10:00 pm during summer, Front Street is closed to all traffic, and vendors set up stalls offering food and drinks and unique Bermudian gifts. There is live music and entertainment at this fun family friendly event.

This year the committee that organizes Harbour Nights has announced that buses heading east and ferries heading to Dockyard, will both remain open later than normal operations. A 10:00 pm and 10:30 pm ferry heading to Dockyard should do well to take late night revelers back to the cruise ships in Dockyard at an affordable cost.

Whale Watching

Jan – Jun. For more information about the whales in Bermuda and what is being done to study them, visit Andrew Stevenson’s Humpback Whale Research Foundation’s website: http://www.whalesbermuda.com

Yearly Events

To see a list of fishing tournaments in Bermuda head over to the bottom of our fishing charters page.

2016

February

February 19 to 21, 2016 – M32 Winter Series

[countdown event=”M32 Bermuda Winter Series” date=”19 February 2016″]

The M32 Winter Series Bermuda is the latest class to announce that they will hold events on Hamilton Harbour in Bermuda. Hakan Svensson, the CEO and owner of Aston Harald AB and the World Match Racing Tour, has revealed that Bermuda will host the M32 Winter Series between January and April 2016. The M32 series will include four separate events and involve as many as twelve M32’s that will race either in the Great Sound or Hamilton Harbour.

March

March 2-6, 2016 – RC44 Championship
[countdown event=”RC44 Championship” date=”2 March 2016″]

The RC44 Championship Tour has established itself as a key series to compete on in the international yacht racing circuit. The mission behind the championship is to together the worlds of sailing and business, allowing amateur owner drivers to race, high performance one-design yachts, with some of the world’s elite sailors, competing at some of the most beautiful and diverse sailing venues around the world. It uses RC44 which is light displacement, high performance one-design racing yacht co-designed by five-time America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts with naval architect Andrej Justin. These boats are strictly identical in terms of construction, shape of hull, appendages and weight/weight distribution, as well as a 50-50 split between amateurs and professionals in each eight-person crew.

Please check website for further details.

March 11-13, 2016 – M32 Winter Series

[countdown event=”M32 Bermuda Winter Series” date=”11 March 2016″]

March 31-April 2 , 2016 – Digicel Dinghy Regatta
[countdown event=”Digicel Dinghy Regatta” date=”31 March 2016″]

The regatta will provide racing for Optimist, O’Pen Bic, RS Fevas, Laser (Radial and Full Rig) and Comets. Completed entry forms available at [REGATTA NETWORK], or from the Sailing Office,together with the required entry fees not later than Friday March 25, 2016. The entry fees is $100 for all classes.

Please check website for further details.

April

April 15 to 17, 2016 – M32 Winter Series

[countdown event=”M32 Bermuda Winter Series” date=”15 April 2016″]

May

May 24th, 2016 – Bermuda Day
[countdown event=”Bermuda Day” date=”24 May 2016″]
Bermuda Day falls on a Tuesday in 2016 and will be back with a bang! Our national holiday keeps getting bigger and better with each year, a bigger parade in Hamilton and more boats on the water to open up the start of summer. There will be a parade in the City of Hamilton which will start in the early afternoon, (at approximately 1:00 PM) as well as a half-marathon (typically starts at 9:00 AM) – both annual traditions in recent years. The race starts in Somerset Parish and ends at Bernard’s Park with spectators spread out along the length of the race cheering the runners on, which can number over 1,500.

June

June 10, 2016 – 20th Annapolis Bermuda Ocean Race

[countdown event=”20th Annapolis Bermuda Ocean Race” date=”10 June 2016″]

With a unique combination of inshore and offshore racing through its route down the Chesapeake Bay, across the Gulfstream, and onto Bermuda , race enables many sailors to fulfill a lifelong ambition. Sailors and audiences gets to enjoy sandy beaches and legendary hospitality. It’s got new sponsor club this year the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club.

The Race covers 753 miles, making it the longest ocean race on the east coast of the U.S. The fleet is limited to 50 entries which allows the committee and host clubs to be responsive to the needs of each entrant–a major objective of the race organizers.

June 17-20, 2016 – Bermuda Heroes Weekend
[countdown event=”Bermuda Heroes Weekend” date=”17 June 2016″]
Carnival came to Bermuda in 2015 for the first time and it was a major success! We’re talking about soca music and parties, not the cruise ship! The four day carnival holiday over-lapses Bermuda’s National Heroes Day on Monday, where more details can be read below. With the great success of carnival in 2015, it is sure to be more excitement in 2016, the second year of carnival in Bermuda! The organizers behind the event are also the ones behind the big soca truck that can be found in the Bermuda Day Parade. Visit their official website here for tickets and updates.

June 20, 2016 – National Heroes Day
[countdown event=”National Heroes Day” date=”20 June 2016″]
Celebrated on the third Monday in June of each year, National Heroes Day is a day to highlight an island hero, a person is officially designated for each year, with the first hero highlighted being Dame Louis Brown, the first female lawyer in Bermuda, co-author of Bermuda’s modern constitution, first black woman elected to Parliament, first female Opposition Leader in the British Commonwealth, among a number of other successes. It is great heroes like this that Bermuda look at highlighting each year.

June 9, 2017 – Marion – Bermuda Yacht Race

[countdown event=”Marion – Bermuda Yacht Race” date=”09 June 2017″]

Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race will start on Friday, June 9, 2017 in Buzzards Bay off Marion, Massachusetts, and finish off St. David’s Head, Bermuda.

Since its inception in 1977, the Marion-Bermuda Race has been a Corinthian event, and yachts are accepted by invitation. The spirit of the race is that all yachts and crew are participating for the joy and pleasure of sailing, competition, and the camaraderie that accompanies such an off-shore event. The race provides an opportunity for cruising yachts and amateur crews to participate in an ocean race and a rendezvous in Bermuda.

Find out more details about the event on their official website.

July/Aug

Thursday, July 28, 2016 – Emancipation Day & The 10th Annual Beachfest Emancipation Celebration
[countdown event=”Emancipation Day – 1st Day of Cup Match” date=”28 July 2016″]

We do hope that Beachfest will return in 2016. In 2015, Beachfest was cancelled and an impressive concert was held at Number One car park. If Beachfest moves forward in 2016, here is a summary of what to expect: Beachfest takes place at Horseshoe Bay Beach. You can expect live singing performances from local talent and plenty of beach games. Each year there is a visitors tent open for most of the day, however, the festivities last late into the night. There is a tug-o-war, wacky races, sports tournaments, and limbo competitions held throughout the day. Into the evening the performances start.

We’ll keep you updated if Beachfest is on in 2016.

Friday, July 29, 2016 – Somer’s Day

[countdown event=”Somers Day – 2nd Day of Cup Match” date=”29 July 2016″]
The Thursday and Friday above make up the holiday Cupmatch in Bermuda. You need to read the full idea behind Cupmatch, how it started, and how you can enjoy it, to fully understand why you would want to be here for the events. Go to our blog post here where we dedicate a whole article on Cupmatch – what it is, what to do, whether you should wear blue and blue or red and blue.

Sunday, August 2, 2015- Non-Mariners Race
[countdown event=”Non-Mariners Race” date=”31 July 2016″]
Non-Mariners is one of Bermuda’s biggest parties on the water. It consists of a race of floats where most of them fall apart or sink. There are boats everywhere and the base of the celebration is at the Sandys Boat Club. Groups planning well in advance can charter party boats in Bermuda to go this event. This is a party that over the past few years has only grown in size.

Bonus: Tips on Surviving Cup Match

November

June 18-20, 2016 – Bermuda Keel Invitational Boat Race

[countdown event=”Bermuda Keel Invitational Boat Race” date=”18 June 2016″]

If you love sailing, then you will truly be in your element with the arrival of “Bermuda Bermuda Keel Invitational Boat Race. The excitement is all set to last from November 18 to 20th, and you wouldn’t want to miss it. The event is one of the high points of the international sailing calendar, and it will be held at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. It will see an amazing barrage of vessels flocking to the island, to engage in a series of races and activities to mark the occasion.

2017

June

June, 2017 – America’s Cup Finals
[countdown event=”America’s Cup Finals” date=”1 June 2017″]
The America’s Cup Village will be in Dockyard with the races going on in the Great Sound. The winner of the America’s Cup match races will challenge ORACLE TEAM USA in the America’s Cup Finals in Bermuda. See more details and an exciting video on our article about the announcement.

June 1-5, 2017 – Rendezvous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta, Quebec – Canada
[countdown event=”Rendezvous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta, Quebec – Canada ” date=”1 June 2017″]

Sail Training Association Bermuda  announced that the buzz of the 2017 America’s Cup races will soon be continued with Rendezvous 2017 Tall Ships Regatta. It  is a Transatlantic event, and don’t happen that often — so this will make for a very special time, when the majestic tall ships are in the same place as the highest tech sailing vessels going. It’s going to be quite a contrast to observe America’s Cup races as ultimate spectator event, while a tall ships festival in Hamilton would allow the public, including young people, to get up close and personal with the ships.

The race will begin in Royal Greenwich, UK on 16 April, 2017, with the ships sailing to Sines, Portugal. Next to Hamilton Bermuda, Boston, various ports in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and importantly Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where Canada’s articles of Confederation were signed On July 1, 1867. The ships will then proceed Quebec City. The final leg will see the fleet sailing back across the Atlantic to Le Havre in France.

The fleet is estimated to significantly enhance in Bermuda with the arrival of vessels from South and Central America along with vessels that normally winter in the Caribbean, and some from the East Coast that wish to join the race to Boston and the Canadian event that will follow. Generally speaking, young people between the age of 15 and 25 are eligible to join a tall ship crew for any leg of the 2017 race.

STA Bermuda offers partial financial assistance to eligible young people up to the age of 25. Please contact Mr. Wadson.

June 15-16, 2017 – J Class Regatta
[countdown event=”J Class Regatta ” date=”15 June 2017″]

The J Class Association and the America’s Cup Event Authority have agreed to stage a J Class regatta in Bermuda in June 2017 between the conclusion of the America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs and the America’s Cup Match after duration gap of eighty years. The current J Class fleet comprises seven boats, including three original Js, two of which raced for the America’s Cup. The seven J Class boats currently sailing are: Endeavour, Hanuman, Lionheart, Rainbow, Ranger, Shamrock V, Velsheda, eighth J Class yacht launched in May. J Class fleet racing is considered to be one of the most spectacular sights on the world sailing circuit. The Class continues to expand and the fleet is warmly welcomed by regatta organizers around the world.

JCA and J Class contact: press@jclassyachts.

Please visit website for further details.

June 21-22, 2017 – Red Bull Youth America’s Cup
[countdown event=”Red Bull Youth America’s Cup” date=”21 June 2017″]

Bermuda has been confirmed as host for Red Bull Youth America’s Cup for 2017, with qualifying starting from 2016. This time the stakes have been raised by adding young crews racing on AC45 wing-sailed catamarans. Double Olympic Gold medalists Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher, from Austria, will be the Sports Directors for the Series, identifying talent, coaching and assisting the young teams, and making selections for the final regatta. It’s going to be a foiling version, taking flight above the water, just like the America’s Cup crews hoping to join.

Please visit website for more information.

June, 2017 – Superyacht Regatta

Superyacht owners and charterers are being given extra incentive to visit the island during the iconic sporting America’s Cup in 2017. Organisers have created a Superyacht Program offering exclusive access and services, including in-venue berthing, prime ‘front row’ race viewing, concierge assistance, admission to the official hospitality venue and post-race press conferences, and entry to the America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta. In 2017, Bermuda, Superyachts will be at the heart of the action at the America’s Cup – from exclusive course side race viewing, to their very own Superyacht Regatta. The America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta is scheduled to take place on off-days from the America’s Cup racing programme and depending on the weather conditions we will have the option of racing either inside the Great Sound or outside on a thrilling ocean course. A shoreside program, including an Owners’ Dinner and End of Regatta Party will ensure this is an event to remember..

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