Toppa Top 10: The Best Caribbean Carnivals

Words by Steve Bennett, Erin MacLeod, Jesse Serwer and Jillionaire—

It’s officially, unequivocally carnival season. Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Dominica, Martinique and Rio de Janeiro are just a few of the places where people are either in the midst of taking to the streets in vibrant, raucous and occasionally hedonistic displays of national pride, or are about to. With the biggest carnival in our region about to kick off in Port of Spain, we tapped our feting experts for their picks for the region’s top festivals. For more carnival vibes, download LargeUp’s 2013 soca mix Fog Up D Place mixed by Jillionaire.

Start the list here.

*This list is purely for entertainment purposes. The selection process, though based on considerations of size, scope and uniqueness, was entirely unscientific. If you think we’re fools for not including your island’s carnival, tell us why in the comments.

10. Crucian Christmas Festival, St. Croix

Photo: SBPR

In my home island of St. Croix, Christmas time is also Carnival time, a tradition that dates all the way back to the slave days. Calypso competitions, jouvert, children’s and adult parades, elaborate costumes and the typical trampin’, grindin’, and winin’ you’d expect from Trinidad Carnival, Vincy Mas and other top Caribbean fetes are all part of the Holiday Season here. The party lasts for the better part of December and the first week in January, though the main events really start on Christmas Day. —Steve Bennett/Uncommon Caribbean

9. Carriacou Carnival

Photo: Lebawit Lily Germa

This uncommon little island in the Grenadines offers a Carnival experience that’s truly unique. The timing coincides with the normal pre-Lenten period and traditional Carnival elements — j’ouvert, colorful costumes, parades, calypso competitions, etc. — are all part of the fun too. The big difference here is Shakespeare Mas, a theatrical, lightly competitive fete in which actors called Peirrots test themselves by reciting Shakespearean verse.—Steve Bennett/Uncommon Caribbean

8. Vincy Mas, St. Vincent

Vincentians will tell you their Carnival, better known as Vincy Mas, is the hottest around. They might be right. Like Spicemas in Grenada, Vincy Mas is a mid-summer fete that was originally celebrated during the pre-Lenten period. And like Martinique Carnival, Vincy Mas embodies the “Don’t Stop the Carnival” aesthetic, stretching over the better part of three months beginning in May. The six straight days of mas, jouvert, street jump-up and outright revelry that culminate the event set it apart, though — a marathon of mirth and merriment for the fittest! —Steve Bennett/Uncommon Caribbean

7. Mas Dominik, Dominica

Photo: Erin MacLeod

Dominica’s carnival, also known as Real Mas, may not be as large as Trinidad’s by a long shot, but it more than makes up for its small size with its big heart. This is a welcoming, downhome event, with long-preserved traditions. (It’s also underway as we speak.) It’s impossible to stand on the sidelines. If you’re in Roseau, you’re a part of it. —Erin MacLeod

6. Martinique Carnival

Photo: Martinique Promotion Bureau

When they say “Don’t Stop the Carnival” in Martinique, they mean it! Here, the action doesn’t end in time for Ash Wednesday as it does in Trinidad and most everywhere else. Instead of rest and reflection, Ash Wednesday here brings La Fête des Diablesses, or the Day of the She-Devils, the symbolic burning of Vaval, King Carnival, and the climax of the Carnival season. The Martinique Carnival motto — Rejoice Today, Repent Tomorrow — is richly deserved. —Steve Bennett/Uncommon Caribbean

5. Kanaval, Haiti

Photo: Etienne Côté-Paluck

Kanaval in Haiti takes place across the country leading up to Mardi Gras. Musically, it’s less soca and more of a konpa, zouk and rap creyol-sountracked affair. The weekend before the national carnival (typically held in Port-Au-Prince), a smaller carnival, with its own unique traditions, is also held in Jacmel, the Southern port city that is Haiti’s cultural capital. To get a feel for Kanaval as celebrated in Jacmel, check Étienne Côté-Paluck’s many videos and photos of the affair.—Erin MacLeod

4. Junkanoo, Bahamas

Junkanoo parades, typified by their intricate costumes and distinctive drum patterns, happen across the Bahamas around the winter holidays and in the summertime. But the largest and most spectacular version of the 200-year-old Bahamian tradition takes place in the capital city of Nassau, on Boxing Day (Dec. 26) and again on New Year’s Day. —Jesse Serwer

3. Spicemas, Grenada

Spicemas is hot. Real hot, and not just because it’s held in the middle of summer. The good folks in Grenada moved their Carnival from the pre-Lenten period to mid-summer years ago to avoid competing with the much bigger annual bashment in Trinidad. Spicemas holds its own nicely, however, especially when you consider Grenada’s lopsided female-to-male population ratio. The women outnumber the men here 12-to-1, I’m told. Yeah, that’s hot. —Steve Bennett/Uncommon Caribbean

2. Crop Over, Barbados

Call it a comeback. Crop Over, a nearly summer-long celebration which culminates on the first Monday in August, is one of the oldest carnival traditions in the Caribbean, dating all of the way back to the 1600s, when it signaled the end of the annual sugar harvest (hence Crop Over). But it was discontinued in the mid 20th century, before being revived in the ’70s and growing into the epic, Trinidad-like festival of today, the second largest carnival in the region. —Jesse Serwer

1. Trinidad and Tobago Carnival

Trinidad carnival is indeed the greatest street party in the world. Trinidad culture and music is difficult to contextualize – people generally perceive us as a feelgood people, but it’s only when you get to Piarco airport and smash your first doubles that you really begin to fully grasp what’s happening on the island. Soca music may sound weird and tinny on iphone headphones on the train, but when you’re in a big fete with ten thousand revelers on carnival Friday and that bass hits your chest, you don’t have any choice but to move.

A carnival band will always be a sight to behold. I played mas every year as a child, and for many years as an adult. I have found my place now as an observer. Whether it is j’ouvert band coming down Tragerete Road at 6am Monday morning or a ‘pretty mas’ getting ready to cross the Savannah stage, you are sharing in an elation that cannot be put into words.

I’ve never met anyone that didn’t enjoy Trinidad carnival. It may be expensive, depending on the route you choose to go. It may be overwhelming, depending on how many events you choose to attend. But to all the skeptics out there, I can say this – try it, you’ll like it. —Jillionaire

+1 (Honorable Mentions)

Nevis Culturama

For Carnival on a smaller, more interpersonal level, where you can immerse in a unique local culture while also spreeing up to your hearts content, Culturama is a good choice. Held each August for seven days that culminate over Emancipation Weekend, Culturama has a little bit of everything — Calypso tents, village street jams, fashion shows, beach and house parties, swim suits contests, night dances, boat rides and drama presentations. Through it all, visitors get a true sense of the real Nevis. —Steve Bennett/Uncommon Caribbean

Notting Hill Carnival, London

Some of the largest and liveliest carnivals don’t take place in the Caribbean but in the diaspora capitals of London, Toronto, New York and Miami, where they’re fed by the diversity of large populations of people from multiple Caribbean islands living side by side. Notting Hill Carnival has grown over five decades from a local community event meant to stave off then-growing racial tensions into Europe’s largest street festival. Held each year on England’s August bank holiday Monday and the preceding Sunday, today it attracts upwards of one million people to the now-gentrified Notting Hill and surrounding North London areas like Ladbroke Grove.

Caribana, Toronto

Toronto’s Caribana (or, technically, the Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival, as it’s now known–the story behind this is long and drawn out) is celebrating its 45th birthday this year. It brings West Indians of all nationalities together over the course of events leading up to a large road march in August. It’s the largest Caribbean festival in North America, with millions of people dancing in the streets.—Erin MacLeod

West Indian American Day Carnival, Brooklyn

No one really calls Labor Day Weekend in Brooklyn “Carnival,” but it has most of the hallmarks of one, namely a vibrant street parade (with enough masqueraders, steelpan players and floats to capsize one of the smaller-sized Caribbean islands—over 2 million people every year, according to some estimates) and an epic j’ouvert to kick off things the night before.

Miami Carnival

Miami Carnival (or Miami Broward One Carnival as it’s now known) has the unusual distinction of taking place in the parking lot of a football stadium in an unpopulated area north of its titular city. Taking place in October, it’s particularly popular among New York-based Caribbeans, who come down to South Florida in droves seeking post-Labor Day thrills.