Discover the Greatest Show on Earth Trinidad Carnival

You know that the Caribbean as and for a great vacation spot. What you may not know about is all the fabulous festivals that occur in the Caribbean almost year round. These fabulous festivals are concentrated Caribbean fun, where you’ll get all the culture, food and adventure of the Caribbean right in one spot. Here are some of the fabulous festivals and carnivals in the Caribbean you should try not to miss.

Trinidad Carnival 

It’s 5am on Carnival Monday and you’re covered in thick, cold mud  and Paint aYour skin is tingling with anticipation and you can  feel the cool morning air. Up ahead there’s a fourteen-wheeler pulling a trailer laden with music speakers, You’re dancing. You’re smiling. Welcome to Carnival!

Calypso Tents

A “tent” is any venue where calypsonians perform nightly, showing off their new songs, gauging audience response, and perfecting their numbers for the big competitions. Though they are sparser than in days gone by, they give a good idea of how the season is shaping up, and if you’ve been away and lost track of the latest political and social scandals, the tents are an excellent place to become reacquainted. 

Steel Bands & Pan Yards

To truly experience the essence of Carnival, you must take in the sweet music of steel bands. These community-based orchestras play various kinds of steel pan, the metal music drum invented in Trinidad around World War II. You can visit the various pan-yards around the country. On the nights where they maybe practicing for the upcoming competitions entrance will be free – just support the local vendors – but once you visit on the night when preliminary judging is taking place the pan-yards usually charge a nominal fee to aid in their upkeep.

 Panorama

The national steel band competition, one of the most keenly anticipated events of the season. The final at the Queen’s Park Savannah is the epicentre of the pan world. One 100-member steel orchestra after another wheels out into the “big yard”; the music starts; the flagmen and flagwomen wave their flags, thousands of fans dance, and the players pour heart and soul into their melodies and harmonies and rhythms until the air can’t contain any more sound. Not to be missed.

Carnival Fêtes

From band launches the previous summer to an almost daily list of parties in the final few weeks before Carnival, they are the place to learn the new tunes and hone your “wining” technique. The sheer energy and enthusiasm of the soca-drunk throng is like a force of nature. For those of you who have never experienced our Carnival, a fête is a big party, usually held outdoors or at one of our many nightspots. It consists mainly of a DJ playing recorded music or sometimes there is a live band performance.  People party every night and still make it to their day job in the morning. This is the week when your stamina must be tip-top, when the spirit of Carnival becomes truly inescapable and sleep an afterthought.

Kiddies Carnival

Now you might think that Carnival is only for adults, with the panyards, the fêtes and two big days of the masquerade. This is not necessarily so. The children also have their time on the streets of the capital. Carnival Saturday is the day when all children’s bands take to the streets and head for the Queen’s Park Savannah where their costumes will be adjudicated to determine who will earn the prestigious title of band of the year.

Competitions

The highlight of the calypsonian’s year is Dimanche Gras (Big Sunday), the day before Carnival officially begins. Crowds throng the stands to hear exponents of calypso sing social commentary songs, or party songs on having a good time. The winner is crowned Calypso Monarch. Soca singers replace the sounds of Christmas with their new songs for the festival, in the hope of producing the most popular song for the season, the Road March, or being crowned International Soca Monarch on Carnival Friday. 

J’Ouvert Morning 

At 4am on Carnival Monday morning, Carnival finally begins with J’Ouvert (French Patois for “opening of day” and pronounced ju-vay), when wild devotees of the Merry Monarch are finally unleashed. Preparations for J’Ouvert are always cloaked in darkness, to give that semblance of role reversal, where those in positions of power are mocked by those who either work for them or are in lower positions. J’Ouvert is not about pretty costumes; it’s about mud, cocoa, oil, devils, and “picong”, an inversion of normality and the relentless mocking of power and respectability. It is Carnival at its most primal. 

Carnival Monday

Well after the sun has come up on Carnival Monday morning, revellers start to head home for a few shorts hours of sleep and refueling (eat whenever you can over these two and half days) before heading back to the streets. Look out for bands of traditional Carnival characters – fancy 18 sailors, black Indians, and midnight robbers with their long-winded “robber talk”. 

Carnival Tuesday

Carnival Tuesday is the day everything else has been leading toward. Months of preparation and effort, anticipation and excitement erupt into “pretty mas” as tens of thousands of revellers clad in spandex, colourful cotton, beads, sequins, feathers, and every other conceivable material take over the streets of Port of Spain in competition for the Band of the Year title. With weeks of partying behind them, many masqueraders by now are running on pure elation, sustained by the music and the desire to make it to the big moment when their band crosses the big stage at the Queen’s Park Savannah.