Mango Melee Video Goes Viral, Making VI Competition Envy Of Caribbean

ST. CROIX — Is the territory’s annual Mango Melee event, with its mango eating competition, the only of its kind in the Caribbean, maybe even the world? There appears to be a competition in India during the International Mango Festival, held in Delhi early summer, but nothing else aside from the popular St. Croix event.

This year’s occasion, as has been the case almost every per anum, turned out to be yet another success, as residents and visitors alike descended on the St. George Botanical Garden two Sundays ago, mingling, being entertained and, of course, eating.

A video posted on The Consortium’s Facebook page has garnered over 290,000 views — The Consortium’s most popular video thus far (it’s second most popular being that of Kevin Williams Jr. performing Pressure Busspipe’s Virgin Islands Nice with about 228,000 views, and seen by over 826,000 people) — with as many as 573,637 people having seen the post at time of writing.

Viewers hail from all over the Caribbean and the world, including Jamaica, Trinidad and Antigua, among others, as well as folks in Europe and even Japan — putting the territory, in a rather cool light, on the global map.

“What a lovely competition. The mangoes look sweet too,” said Lynessa Williams from Grenada.

“The quality of mangoes I have had in the states, if I was in that contest I would be banned next time. I would eat from my bowl and my neighbors’ bowls,” said Francesca Jennifer Louis, who is from the territory but lives in North Carolina.

The video has racked up nearly 600 comments. It has over 5,500 shares and well past 1,500 likes.

“Now that’s [an] eating contest I would love to try!” said Jim Robertson, a manager at Petco from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The mango eating competition traditionally takes place at 5:00 p.m., and serves as the last attraction and main event of the annual affair. It includes two competitions, one for children and a more challenging contest for adults. Adult participants can only eat the mangoes — ten oversize fruits — with one hand, and must eat the mangoes clean; not a halfhearted effort that leaves all the fruit on the seed.

The competition is as difficult as it appears, and competitors have been said to give up midway, some requesting bags to throw up in.

This story’s feature image is this year’s winner, Olubayo Aaza. Watch the video below.