Welcome to Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival season 2006. Get set to enjoy one of the greatest shows on earth; whether you choose to experience Carnival as a spectator, or as a participant you will surely be amazed at the outpouring of Trinidad’s creativity. The costumes are stunning with their multi-coloured feathers, sequins and beads but when you see them on thousands of happy revellers enjoying the pulsating rhythms of soca music, you really have an incredible sight.

Trinidad’s Carnival is not a show done for the benefit of tourists; it is an historic part of the yearly Christian calendar mixed with French and African celebrations, held every year just before Lent. It is a natural outpouring of excitement and celebration that begins mounting right after Christmas and comes to a crashing halt at midnight Carnival Tuesday. Everyone participates; all ages, races and classes meet to play mas; and visitors are welcomed to join a band, get in costume and parade through the streets along with everyone else. Hundreds of Trinidadians return from their homes in Toronto, Brooklyn, Miami and London to party with their families and friends; the atmosphere is very charged with everyone determined to have a good time.

The Carnival season is full of events too numerous to list and attend. Be choosy and go to the best or go to one of everything. There are fetes every weekend and as it gets closer to Carnival, every night; calypso concerts, Soca competitions and the island-wide steel band competition called Panorama. All these events are just warm-ups to the actual Carnival days, the Monday and Tuesday just before Ash Wednesday.