Before I explain anything about the Carnival festivities, it is important to understand all the terminology, otherwise nothing will make sense. First of all the different groups in a Carnival parade are called bands, within a band there are sections, each section has different costumes. Being in a section in a band and participating in the festivities is called jumping, so I jumped in Red Unlimited (the band), in the best section in the band, yes we actually won that award, Tempted to Touch.
Almost every village has their own Carnival, with a lot of t-shirt bands instead of super fancy costumes like the main Carnival festivities that I jumped in. If you wanted to/you were completely insane you could jump carnival for about 2 months straight, traveling around the island.
That would mean staying up all night to do Jouvert which is basically a street party that starts at 4am and goes till 7am, then going home bathing changing, and jumping day one of carnival, from 10/12-6pm, then you rest up, the crazy people party more, and jump again the next day. Needless to say I only jumped the one carnival this year.
Now for the main event with all the fancy costumes dancing along the highway in the capital there is a little more to it. I would say the Carnival Weekend starts Friday, with Sexy in Black concert in which everyone wears black and parties/hears local Soca artisits (the type of music played at Carnival) perform. For some of us, meaning me, I then got up Saturday morning went to a meeting, then went to coach my vaulters, which means I rested Saturday night, but a true reveler, the people that jump carnival, would have gone to the Calypso Monarch Finals Saturday night. Calypso is a type of music similar to reggae, but it has a message behind it, usually about the state of the nation, and fixing problems, the Monarch part literally means the years best or King of that type of music. Sunday is the inter-Caribbean Soca Monarch Finals concert, in which the top Soca artists in the region compete to see who wins in St. Lucia, it almost always a Lucian cause so much is based on how the crowd gets into the song. After that its to the pre-jouvert party put on by our band, then jouvert, then breakfast, we found a place wit $5 waffles and pancakes, which is unheard of here. Breakfast may have been my favorite party of the whole thing, I was with my 4 best friends on the island, we were all slap happy from being up for 24 hours, and half the people working in the restaurant were about to go jump carnival in a few hours.
After Breakfast it was time to get ready for the main event, no I didn't leave out going to sleep, we didn't. Instead we changed into our fancy carnival costumes, and went down to the highway to join our band for whining , dancing, on the streets for the next 6 hours by the time we actually caught up with our band a little late. The best part of day one is going past the judges, everyone is so amped and the best songs play, and the whole section just goes crazy when they pass the judges. At points it is almost as if the whole thing was choreographed because there is a specific dance to the song that played as we passed the judges and everyone did it together brilliantly. Right after the judges it started pouring rain, which was so nice cause it cools you off and everyone is dancing, singing, and being silly in the rain without a care about getting wet, which is not normal at all down here.
Then its time to rest up, so you are ready for day two. Day two everyone looks tired at the start, but after a few energy drinks, monster sponsored our band, every is starting to get going, and since we aren't being judged today and we don't have to conserve energy, and there is a less caring. For example when we walk through a round about/traffic circle the whole band runs around it in one direction, stops then runs around in the opposite direction, just silly fun really. By the end of the day tuesday, most peoples costumes have fallen apart between being rained on and dancing in the streets for over 12 hours, the costumes just weren't made to last.
Then you go home and sleep. It was an amazing experience for me and I'm so glad I did it, I'm not sure it would be as much fun for people who just come down for carnival because the best part is being care free with a bunch of friends, music you know, in an environment that is completely comfortable to you, and I only had that because I live here and nothing seemed strange or out of sorts to me. I could see how the entire 5 day weekend however could be rather overwhelming for people who don't know what they are getting themselves into. My friends and I agree though that we will have to do the DC Caribbean Carnival, especially if we are all studying in the US.
The photos are of me and friends I jumped with in our costumes, our section, our truck, every band has a truck that plays their music, the massive costume is our band's queen, pictures of breakfast/post jouvert and pre-jumping, and the ladies in red are the beginning of our band/the vip section.
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