Award-Winning ‘Love in Spring Garden’ sets the stage for heritage experience Grand Opening Oct. 15

SPRING GARDEN, COLOMBIER, St. Martin--A cultural project more than 15 years in the making will enter a new chapter on October 15 when Heritage Experience officially opens in Spring Garden, offering residents and visitors an immersive journey through the history, traditions, food and storytelling of St. Martin.

The opening represents the realization of a long-held vision for Ghyslaine Richardson, Helene Hanson and Cecil Nicholas, who have spent approximately 15 years developing an experience designed to preserve the stories and knowledge of earlier generations while allowing people to encounter that heritage in the place where much of it was lived.

The milestone comes with significant recognition already attached to the project. Its signature theatrical production, “Love in Spring Garden,” has been selected as the 2027 St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association Cultural Icon, bringing added attention to an experience created to make St. Martin heritage something visitors can actively experience rather than simply observe.

For Richardson, Hanson and Nicholas, the SHTA recognition arrives at a particularly meaningful moment. After years of imagining, writing, researching and developing the concept, the Heritage Experience they envisioned is no longer simply an idea. Visitors are now walking through Spring Garden, hearing its stories, tasting traditional foods and watching characters inspired by an earlier period of St. Martin life come alive.

A Vision Rooted in Preservation

At the heart of Heritage Experience was a concern shared by its creators: that stories, customs and traditional knowledge inherited from earlier generations could gradually disappear if deliberate efforts were not made to preserve and pass them forward.

For Richardson, that mission has been closely connected to her longstanding passion for St. Martin history and culture. Over the years, she has devoted attention to documenting memories, customs and traditional knowledge from older generations, work that provided an important foundation for the historical narrative that eventually helped shape Heritage Experience.

Together with Hanson and Nicholas, that commitment gradually developed into the idea of creating a place where history would not be confined to written accounts, exhibitions or presentations. Instead, visitors would be able to walk through the landscape, hear the stories, see traditions performed and experience elements of St. Martin culture through food, theatre and the natural surroundings.

The months of soft opening have allowed that 15-year vision to finally meet its audience. With the official grand opening approaching, Heritage Experience is now preparing to welcome a wider public and begin its first full season.

The Journey Begins With a Conch Shell

The Heritage Experience begins with the unmistakable sound of a conch shell, ceremonially blown to signal the start of the journey through the history and traditions of Spring Garden.

Guests are introduced to the area while walking through its natural surroundings and learning how plants, trees and other elements of the environment were used by earlier generations. What may initially appear to be an ordinary part of the landscape becomes connected to stories of food, medicine, survival, daily living and the resourcefulness that helped sustain island communities.

The land is therefore more than the setting for Heritage Experience. It forms an important part of the interpretation, allowing visitors to see familiar surroundings through the experiences and knowledge of those who lived there before them.

From that introduction to the landscape, the excursion gradually moves into live storytelling and performance.

‘Love in Spring Garden’ Brings Village Life to the Stage

Through “Love in Spring Garden,” audiences are transported into traditional village life through characters, dialogue, humour and community interaction, offering a glimpse into the personalities and relationships that once shaped everyday life in St. Martin.

The reenactment grew from the written story and script developed as part of the larger Heritage Experience vision. Clara Reyes later worked with and trained the actors in interpreting and delivering the existing material, helping the cast move the characters and dialogue from the written page into a live performance.

Through the actors, audiences encounter relationships, customs, personalities and the rhythms of another period of St. Martin life. It is this production that has now been selected as the 2027 SHTA Cultural Icon.

During the soft-opening period, “Love in Spring Garden” emerged as a memorable highlight for many visitors. At the same time, guests often found it difficult to identify a single favorite part of the overall experience, reflecting the way the reenactment, landscape, food and storytelling work together rather than standing as separate attractions.

Heritage Experience expressed appreciation to SHTA for recognizing the production and for helping place another spotlight on St. Martin’s cultural heritage. While the distinction specifically celebrates “Love in Spring Garden,” the team hopes it will also encourage more people to discover everything surrounding the performance.

Heritage Through Food

The story continues through food, where traditional preparation methods and familiar island flavours provide another connection to the lives of previous generations.

The culinary portion introduces guests to foods and ingredients associated with traditional island life. A tasting of arrowroot offers one connection to the past, while guests may also enjoy salt fish and stewed chicken with journey cake, with the journey cake baked onsite in a traditional stone oven.

Visitors can also observe cassava bread being prepared, turning traditional knowledge into something they can see firsthand rather than simply hear described. Sorrel and guavaberry are among the local drinks included in the experience, accompanied by local sweet treats.

The aroma from the stone oven, the preparation of cassava bread and the taste of familiar ingredients reinforce one of the central ideas behind Heritage Experience: culture is not only contained in books or told through stories. It can also be heard, seen, tasted, smelled and felt.

More Stories Waiting to Be Told

The vision for Heritage Experience extends beyond the regular excursion and “Love in Spring Garden.”

Richardson and Hanson have written other plays over the years, and the intention is to periodically bring some of those works to life at the Spring Garden venue through special theatrical events and cultural presentations. Visitors received an early glimpse of that broader concept during the soft-opening period, when the venue hosted additional performances alongside the regular Heritage Experience programme.

As Heritage Experience enters its first full season, the aim is to continue developing the location as a cultural space where original storytelling, theatre, history and St. Martin traditions can meet.

That approach will allow residents and visitors to return to Spring Garden and encounter different stories and aspects of the island’s heritage over time. The venue is therefore not being envisioned simply as the home of one successful production, but as a place where more of St. Martin’s stories can continue to find an audience.

A New Tourism Experience Rooted in St. Martin

The October opening also gives the tourism and hospitality sector an opportunity to incorporate another locally developed cultural product into the visitor experience.

Heritage Experience is inviting hotels, tour operators, destination partners, event organizers, travel professionals and cruise-industry stakeholders to explore opportunities for collaboration and to experience the attraction firsthand.

Partners can follow the same journey offered to guests, from the ceremonial conch shell and historical interpretation of Spring Garden to the traditional plants, culinary demonstrations, tastings and award-winning “Love in Spring Garden” reenactment.

The team believes locally rooted cultural experiences can complement St. Martin’s traditional tourism offerings by giving visitors a deeper understanding of the people, history and traditions behind the destination.

Fifteen Years Later, the Doors Open Wider

For Richardson, Hanson and Nicholas, October 15 represents considerably more than the opening of a new attraction. It is the realization of an idea they carried, shaped and developed for 15 years, often long before the public could see what they were working toward.

What began as a desire to ensure that the knowledge, stories and traditions of earlier generations would not disappear has now become a place where those traditions can be encountered, appreciated and shared with others.

The SHTA Cultural Icon recognition arrives just as that long journey enters a new phase. The team views the distinction not as an endpoint, but as encouragement to continue preserving St. Martin heritage while introducing the complete Heritage Experience to a wider audience.

Heritage Experience enters its first full season with gratitude to SHTA for recognizing “Love in Spring Garden,” to the actors and other contributors who helped transform years of planning into a living experience, and to the visitors who came during the soft-opening period, participated and offered their support.

For the three people who carried the vision from its earliest stages, the grand opening is also a deeply personal milestone. It represents another step in ensuring that what was inherited from earlier generations is not simply remembered, but experienced by the generations that follow.

On October 15, the doors open wider.

Visitors will be invited to hear the conch shell, walk through Spring Garden, learn from the landscape, encounter village life through performance, see traditional foods being prepared and experience a part of St. Martin that continues to live through the people committed to preserving and sharing it.

Heritage Experience Grand Opening
October 15, 2026
Spring Garden, Colombier, St. Martin

Heritage Experience welcomes residents, visitors, families, groups and tourism partners for its first full season.

For reservations, tour information, group bookings, private experiences, special events or tourism partnership enquiries, contact Heritage Experience.

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