Trinidad Carnival – A first-timer’s review of the fetes, jouvert and band experience

It’s always been a dream of mine to dance in a carnival (it’s on my 40 by 40 list!) and this year, the dream came true in Trinidad. I will share tips on how I planned it all soon but first, here’s a full review of my experience, the fetes, Jouvert and playing Mas. Trinidad Carnival 2019 took place 4-5 March 2019 (Carnival Monday and Tuesday) with the fetes in the days before that. I arrived with my friend on Friday 1 March 2019 and immediately got stuck in the fun and feteing. So here goes (or as Trinidadians say “lehwego!”) with the reviews with the fetes first, then Jouvert and finally Mas with Tribe:

Soca Brainwash (2 March):

To call this a fete is an understatement. It’s more of a festival experience and the production and facilities are second to none. People likened it to Coachella and frankly I have been to festivals that could not even stand up to the Soca Brainwash experience, that’s how awesome it is. The venue, St Mary’s College Grounds, was absolutely massive and everywhere you looked, there was a dancefloor tent, food stalls, drinks stalls, clothing stalls, EVERYTHING. They even had deodorant girls who sprayed you where you needed it to keep everyone smelling fresh! Honestly, I can’t complain about anything…apart from…I’ll come to that shortly. For some reason, even with all the above, it took a while to get into the groove of things. A lot of people were standing around rather than dancing so it felt a bit stush. To be fair, Stacy and I were also standing around for a while before we decided to go dance. And then when we finally started dancing, MY PHONE GOT STOLEN. Yep, that’s right. First fete, first dance, phone stolen. And my wallet too. I was absolutely gutted. We went to security and the police and they basically said “sorry be more careful and make sure you get a police report for the insurance.” Gutted. I tried to perk myself up but after that, it was a wrap for me. Conclusion: Amazing production and facilities, but the initial stush vibes and phone theft experience makes a repeat visit a no from me.

Sunny Side Up (3 March):

We were ready at 5AM to leave for this fete but our concierge had still not sent us our tickets. I will come back to the concierge in a later post but once we finally got there at 7AM, the fun finally started. I had to brush off the day before’s experience with SBW and my phone and start again here. We missed the sunrise because of the late arrival and most of the food was gone, but we had VIP all-inclusive tickets, so we grabbed what food we could and with the bottomless drinks, we were set. VIP ticketholders could watch the performers onstage from a raised platform but frankly I was scared of it collapsing and we decided to head to the cooler section (i.e. people who brought their own drinks in coolers). The performances were absolutely LIT with the highlights being Machel Montano and Swappi, and we had the best of both worlds because we danced ourselves stupid in the cooler section with frequent return trips to VIP to refill on drinks. The icing on the already delicious cake was the road march that followed the fete. The fete took place in a schoolground but afterwards, we took to the road and followed music trucks and danced in the road to continue feteing. Oh my days. So awesome. I was having so much fun that I didn’t even notice when our driver arrived to pick us up and he literally had to carry me from the road because I was still dancing. Hilarity! Conclusion: Best fete experience, notwithstanding the late start and lack of food. Get the VIP ticket for the unlimited drinks and food, but head to the cooler section so you can really experience the vibes!

Jouvert with Dirty Dozen (Carnival Monday 4 March):

Admittedly I was a bit taken aback by Jouvert. We were held up ONCE AGAIN at 1.30AM waiting for our concierge to bring our tickets (ugh!!) and there was hella traffic on the way to the venue. We finally arrived at 3AM and there was a lot of confusion as to where we were going, so we just followed the people we saw wearing the Dirty Dozen t-shirt. We got there and Stacy and I just held ourselves in confusion and a bit of fright as we were presented with a stage in the dark, a full rave happening in front of it and lots of people covered in paint. Maybe we were still a bit asleep, after all it was still pitch black when we arrived, I dunno. Getting food was literally a fight and by the time we were to head to the road for the road march, I was just counting down until our driver picked us up. But then we touched the road. And things changed. Maybe it was the fact that it was daybreak and finally there was some light. Maybe the music finally reached my soul. I don’t know what it was, but that road march was everything. I had the best time, even better than Sunny Side Up the day before. I forgot the initial awkwardness in the dark and just got to living my best life. Mr Killa appearing on one of the trucks sent the experience to whole different stratosphere and Iwer George just capped off the already awesome road march. We finally left at 9AM because we had to rush home to shower, get clean and ready for the Monday Mas.

Carnival Monday with Tribe (4 March):

We arrived around 12noon and got the shuttle provided by Tribe to catch up with the rest of the band. Music was blaring, people were in their Monday Wear outfits, but honestly Stacy and I were exhausted. There was a bit of confusion with the drinks trucks because apparently there were some VIP trucks (I didn’t even know there was a VIP section for Tribe) so we could only get drinks from the non-VIP trucks. I still got my non-alcholic beverages from all the trucks, VIP and otherwise, but it was annoying for Stacy to have to traipse down to find the non-VIP trucks for her drinks. We mustered up enough energy to cross the stage to Famalay before essentially collapsing at the lunchstop provided by Tribe. Lunch was ample, there were a lot of options and lots of blankets on the ground provided for the masqueraders which was greatly appreciated. I got a good meal so no complaints from me on that front, but I was wiped out afterwards and decided to call it a day and save our energy for the grande finale – Carnival Tuesday. We had told our driver to come back at 6PM but were done at 2.30PM and ending up hitching a ride home with a policeman (who incidentally had taken my victim statement for my stolen phone the day before). What are the odds right?

Carnival Tuesday with Tribe (5 March):

Finally, the day had arrived! It was time to wear our costumes! The excitement was on a whole different level! Actually, let’s go back a few steps. Tribe is probably the top and most exclusive of the carnival bands in Trinidad. Tribe’s costumes were released to great fanfare in July 2018 and immediately, the race was on to get in. It’s almost impossible to get in without approval by a committee member so for a first-timer, it was a daunting task, but somehow I managed by a completely random stroke of luck! I paid my deposit and was set to dance with Tribe in their Kongo costume (backline) woo woo!! Our Airbnb host picked up our costumes, which fit perfectly, and although I didn’t like the bottoms provided, I made it work. The road experience on Carnival Tuesday was pretty epic. There were sooooooooo many people, and I was soooooooo in love with my costume. People say that photographers are a bit picky and practice colorism but honestly, I was too wrapped up in the excitement to care. People asked for my photo, official photographers and spectators alike and I gladly struck a pose. Security did a fantastic job of keeping the masqueraders within the ropes and separate from the general crowds. When it came to crossing the stage, the extent of our activities to that point finally caught up with me. I hadn’t been drinking anything (in order to avoid having to pee on the road) and, as a result, was close to passing out. We were standing around at the socadrome for what felt like absolutely ages (I’m sure it was at least an hour) and by the time we were finally set to cross the stage, I could barely muster up a jump for Famalay. To be fair, I was pretty sick of the song by that point, but this was the moment I had been waiting for and I dug deep to jump and hug Stacy as we ran onto the stage. In terms of the stage crossing experience, it was very disorganised and I noticed that there were people from other sections other than Kongo that were on the stage with us. But hey ho. Once we left the stage, I dropped. Literally. I sat down for a while just chugging down coconut water and ginger ale. Eventually we made it back to the road, throwing our waist one last time before ending up at the Tribe lunchspot. Lunch like the day before was full of options and I got a good meal out of it before dropping again. It was a wrap for me at that point and that was where eventually our driver found us. No Last Lap for us but honestly, I don’t think we missed out.

Final thoughts on Tribe: I loved my costume but dealing with Tribe was such a hassle. I wanted more information on the bottoms for the costume but never got any response from the band via emails or DMs on Instagram. When I finally saw my costume, I hated the bottoms and tried to reach out to Tribe through Instagram and email
to change them. Again, no response. I was quite disappointed by the complete lack of communication given how much I had paid for the costume. Customer service really should be better. However, everything fit as it should, the costume in the end was still gorgeous and the road experience was amazing. Would I dance with Tribe again? Maybe not Tribe but one of its sub-bands like The Lost Tribe or Bliss. No regrets though, it was an amazing experience all in all.

So that’s my carnival experience. I loved it so much, I can’t wait to go again! Would you go to a carnival and play mas? Pipe up in the comments below!
For other reviews of Trinidad Carnival 2019, click HERE and HERE