The Lead Up to Carnival

Carnival season in Trinidad starts on December 26 - this is when the radio stations change from parang (ballads inexplicably sung in Spanish) to all soca all the time. Soca is the music of carnival - it is really up-tempo, major key music, often with lyrics related to carnival and is designed as music that you can dance to in a parade.

The arrival of soca is the first change; the next change is an increase in the number of billboards and banners around town "Carib - the beer of Carnival" or "KFC's Palance Pack." But Carnival really gets started in early February with lots of music festivals featuring soca stars. There are also contests to crown calypso kings; soca monarchs; steel pan orchestras; and contests for the best costumes. Last week, we went to the finals for the Junior Queen Monarchs for costumes. Many of these were sponsored by schools and others were sponsored by specific carnival groups "bands." Most of these costumes were probably 12 feet tall and 12 to 20 feet wide. They are made of aluminum frames; decorated with feathers, sequins, lame', and cost an estimated $15,000.

This first one, is one of the smaller ones but is cleverly shaped like a steel pan.





This black and white costume - won second place. Most of the costumes had complicated back stories to go with the designers overall costume theme. This black one was "Mother Goddess of Bakuba Warrior"



This last one was actually my favorite (unfortunately the picture didn't turn out well). Can you guess the name? It's "Black Gold - Trinidad's Treasure" - a tribute to petroleum. The bottom was gold wings and the head dress was a 15 foot fountain of black feathers. It unfortunately did not win.