Outside of Trinidad, people think that Carnival is really just a weekend event that is held once a year where people dress up, parade and go home. Wrong. Carnival is the culmination of months of planning and intense training, and there are numerous events, competitions and fetes (parties) that lead up to the two-day parade that immediately precedes Ash Wednesday. While I would have loved to have partaken in the over one month-long celebration, I had to experience the abridged version beginning with the Trini Posse cooler fete followed by Moka fete the next day, J'ouvert, and the parade itself.
Quick clarifications:
Cooler fete - BYOB party where you bring a cooler to a venue and dance around it (thus protecting said cooler). Trini Posse easily had a few thousand people in attendance.
J'ouvert a.k.a. jour ouvert - an all-night party/parade involving throwing paint/mud at each other in remembrance of times of civil disobedience where the paint/mud would mask identities of those protesting. We went with the Dirty Dozen band (open bar.. on the street)
As for the parade itself, we went with Fantasy crew and I was in the 'Rulers' section. Despite some horrible logistical failures on their behalf (waited 5 hours to pick up costumes), it turned out to be quite ok, despite marching 20 hours in the hot sun over 2 days. Food and open bar provided - noticing a pattern?
All in all - amazing experience - not sure I want to partake in the parade again (probably more fun to watch and just do J'ouvert) - definitely will go back. Thank you LMA for making this happen and for hosting us!!
