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Trinidad and Tobago Carnival – the greatest street parade in the world – originated during the period of slavery when the slaves, banned from attending their masters’ fancy balls and parties, would improvise by staging their own costumed event in their quarters. After Emancipation, these former slaves challenged the plantation owners to publicly host their own Carnival celebration.
Since then, Carnival has evolved into an inclusive, elaborate billion-dollar revenue earner for Trinidad and Tobago. Like other Roman Catholic countries involved in Carnival, these celebrations take place on the Monday and Tuesday directly before Ash Wednesday, usually marked in February or March. Activities on the two days take the form of street parades by bands of costumed masqueraders.
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A Carnival band could comprise as many as 3,000 masqueraders. To control this number of people on the streets, organisers would divide the band into sections of 200 to 500 masqueraders. Most Carnival bands are led by a King or Queen, some of whom had competed on Dimanche Gras (Carnival Sunday) in order to win the coveted title of King or Queen of Carnival.
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The epicenter for the two-day Parade of the Bands in Trinidad and Tobago is Port of Spain however, similar street parties are held at the sister capital San Fernando and at community level in Mayaro, Chaguanas, Arima and Tobago. It’s generally felt the best place to have a good time is “in town” so this is where many revelers journey in order to take part in the festivities.
Another component of Carnival is the parade of traditional characters. These characters are from an earlier era and are quite ingenious. Most of these traditional Carnival characters are seen on the streets on Fantastic Friday, which is the Friday just before the Parade of the Bands.
There are many cultural shows and parties ( fetes) which take place weeks before the actual street parades on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. Most are held on weekends and there are listings of these events circulating in the daily newspapers and online. Most of these fetes are guaranteed to be fun!
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On the competition side we have Panorama (an international steelpan competition), International Soca Monarch, Chutney Soca Monarch, Calypso Monarch, the King and Queen of Carnival, plus the Band of the Year titles up for grabs and millions of dollars in prize money.
Weeks before the frenetic revelry, Trinidad and Tobago transforms to a country that survives on little sleep but thrives on incessant parties, fast-paced music, the redefinition of gravity while dancing and mouth-watering cuisine.
The best time to visit Trinidad and Tobago for Carnival is the week before Carnival Monday and Tuesday. By then, the finals of some of the cultural competitions would be highlighted – Soca Monarch to crown the performer with the best performance in the riveted-paced and groovy genre (Fantastic Friday), Panorama to proclaim the best band on the steelpan (Carnival Saturday), Calypso Monarch to declare the best lyricist (Dimanche Gras – Sunday). These events open the gate to the massive street parade.
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