* Carnival was originally a European holiday meant to be one last blowout before people had to give up wine, women, song and meat for the forty days of Lent (the word carnival means "good-bye to the flesh"). Taken over by newly freed slaves in Trinidad 170 years ago, Trini carnival became a people's street party with institutions very different from carnivals in Europe, New Orleans or Rio.
* Fetes (massive outdoor parties with live bands and thousands
of dancing patrons) get going about two weeks before Carnival
and increase in size and number as carnival grows nearer. There
are private parties, party boats, public parties in dance halls
and outdoor extravaganzas with live bands and hundreds of people.
Many fetes are billed as "All Inclusive", meaning food
and drink are included in the entrance fee (usually about $300
TT or $50 US). Most fetes have live bands and top notch Soca stars.
Some are straight fetes with music and dancing (Custom Boys, UWI)
. Others have themes like Glow (wear all white under florescent
lights) or Mad Hatters (wear the wildest headgear you can design
to win a prize). Fetes can start at 10 PM and may last until noon
the next day.
* Tents are calypso concerts held in large halls (or sometimes
in stadiums); they were once held in large military tents and
the name stuck. Normally there will be a dozen tents open in Trinidad
and Tobago, five or six of these operating in Port of Spain, with
the hottest calypsonians singing the latest hits. Calypso lovers
are regaled each night with musical tales of love, bacchanal,
politics and picong. Tickets run between $50 - $100 TT ($8 - $14
US). If the crowd enjoys a particular song or singer, they'll
start a rhythmic clapping urging the performer to come back out
for an encore to sing another verse, which will sometimes be made
up on the spot (extempo). Spektakula Productions and Randy Glascoe
Productions usually put on the best shows, often at the Jean Pierre
Complex.
* Soca Monarch Competition is a concert held the Friday before
Carnival featuring the best Soca (Soul Calypso) singers in the
country. Soca is the modern form of calypso, with a heavy base
beat and dance rhythm infectious with younger fans. Traditional
calypso, featured at the Dimanche Gras Show on Carnival Sunday,
emphasizes lyrics, wit and a more stylized presentation. At the
Soca Monarch show you're more likely to be dancing with several
thousand people waving a rag over your head.
* Kiddies Carnival is a miniature carnival for the children of
Trinidad, which is held on Carnival Saturday morning just before
the main celebration. Hundreds of children in brightly colored
costumes parade through the streets of Port of Spain and other
cities, dancing to soca music.
* Panorama is the finals of the national steel band (or pan) competition;
pan was invented in Trinidad in the 1930's. The top eight or so
steel orchestras, which have about 100 players, play soca, pop
and classical music with a unique flair.
* Dimanche Gras is the biggest show of the carnival season, held
on carnival Sunday night. Imagine a competition where the top
eight singers in the U.S. performed in one show to decide who
is the best. That's exactly what Dimanche Gras is, with dance
numbers, comedy and fantastic costumes thrown in. The winner is
crowned Calypso Monarch for that year, winning a car and lots
of cash.
* King and Queens costume competition is also part of Dimanche
Gras, and this competition has to be seen to be believed. The
best eight male and eight female costumes, designed to be the
Kings and Queens of costume bands, parade in the finals competition.
Each of these costumes is the size of a motorized float in the
U.S., some of them 30 feet high and 40 feet across, each powered
by a single person who is judged by how well he or she dances
inside this huge costume.
* Jouvert (from the French "jour ouvert" or day break)
starts before dawn on Carnival Monday, when people spill out of
the Dimanche Gras show around and around 6:00 AM turn Port of
Spain into a giant street party starting just before dawn. Costumes
are simple and reflect the "ole mas" of long ago. Devils,
imps, sailors and monsters prance through the streets, as do people
dressed in rags, mud, and no costume at all, performing dances
that would get them arrested on the same street two days later.
This is the wildest part of carnival, worth staying up all night
to see, or at least to get up early for.
* Mud bands come out early on Juvert morning, wearing as few clothes
as possible and covered head to toe in dripping red mud, pitch
oil and charcoal, or ANYTHING ELSE. Lots of messy fun, but if
this turns you on, wear some old clothes you wouldn't mind getting
paint smeared on and hide your plans from your host or hostess.
All of carnival was considered a low class activity until recently,
and playing in a mud band still is (you could embarrass your host
if his or her neighbors found out you were in one). Wash off and
change clothes before you return to the home you are staying in.
* Costume bands come out for the first time Monday afternoon after
Juvert winds down, for those people who are still standing after
being up all night for Dimanche Gras and Juvert. Modern bands
are elaborate productions with costume designers, teams of seamstresses
and live music trucks. A band carries no musical instruments;
for a large band we're talking about up to 5,000 costumed revelers
(in 2004 the band Poison had close to 20,000 persons) divided
into 30 or more sections, with each of the sections having a related
theme (a recent band with a Titanic theme had smokestacks, sailors,
sea weed, ice bergs, passengers and lounge dancer costumes, each
in their own section). There are dozens of these bands playing
mas each carnival, both large and small.
* Mardi Gras Tuesday is the culmination of carnival, when all
of the "pretty mas" comes out. Most band members don't
wear their full costume on Monday, leaving off hats, standards,
capes and other things so they won't get messed up before the
judging on Tuesday. Bands march prescribed routes through town
to take them past several reviewing stands before passing through
the Queen's Park Savannah and Independence Square, site of the
main judging stands.
* Road March is the most popular Soca song of the year, chosen
because it is played the most by the bands as they cross the Savannah
stage on Carnival Tuesday.
* Las lap is the final celebration of carnival, where diehard
masqueraders form an impromptu party in the streets Tuesday night
up until midnight, which is the beginning of Ash Wednesday and
the Lenten season.
* Ash Wednesday is when the national party shuts down; costumes
go onto the trash heap, and planning for next carnival begins.
Catholics put ashes on their foreheads and the country goes back
to business as usual. The person who performed a wildly lewd dance
with you the day before will pass you on the same street with
a business suit on and pretend to have never seen you before.
© 2004 Afrique Publications
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