Trinidad Carnival

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Beautiful outfits with feathers, glitter, glamour and bling bling. Outfits are enormous or very skimpy, nothing in between. Skimpy outfits on skinny ladies, skimpy outfits on not so skinny ladies.

Moving non stop. Three days in a row, day and night non stop dancing and party. ‘Tired’ a word that the Trinidadians have never heard of. Loose hips, every part of the body moves. It seems so simple, for me it isn’t though. For them it comes natural.

Muddy mess. Carnival Monday starts of with ‘J’Ouvert’ in the night from Sunday to Monday. Huge trucks filled with speakers go around town followed by a club, group, organisation etc. showing off their dancing moves. Everyone can join and the beautiful outfits that follow later are still kept in the wardrobe. For a reason, J’Ouvert is the time for mud and paint throwing. When we joined the rugby team I ended up on a shoulder on his way to a bathtub filled with mud. My outfit was finished off with some red paint touches. It took me more than an hour to scrub everything off.

Trucks with speakers, steel bands and dixies. Giant American monster trucks filled to the max with speakers. The music makes you move wanted or unwanted, the vibrations almost cause an earthquake. With a more traditional edge are the trucks with steel bands. Still playing the same carnival hits though. The trucks that I found most suprising but very practical though are the trucks with dixies, portable toilets. Never look for a toilet because it is following you while you’re dancing!

Carnival hits over and over and yes over. Machel Montano – Illegal, Machel Montano – Bend Over, Machel Montano – Advantage, Kes & The Band – Wotless, Faye Ann Lyons – Consider it done, Destra & Swappi – Middle Ah D Road, Destra – On Somebody & Benjai – Trini. Machel is the king of Trini Carnival. I saw him perform live, he sure knows how to make the crowd move. For the ones who are interested look them up on Youtube, warning they’re very catchy!