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Event Information:
Watch the Trinidad & Tobago
Carnival online live stream
The Trinidad
and Tobago Carnival is an annual event celebrated
on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.
Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago is the most
significant event on the islands' cultural
and tourism calendar, with numerous cultural
events running in the lead up to the street
parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. It
is said that if the islanders are not celebrating
it, then they are preparing for it, while
reminiscing about the past year's festival.
The heart of the musical celebration has
been calypso; recently soca has replaced
calypso as the most celebrated type of music.
Costume, stickfighting and limbo competitions
are also important components of the festival.
Carnival is
also said to have been created in Trinidad
and Tobago when the French slaved the africans
and when slavery was abolished the african
created carnival to celebrate. Carnival
also oringinally lasted 2 months but now
lasts 2 days. Trinidad's Carnival is said
to be the best Carnival in the world and
in second Brazil. Today musical competitions
make up a large part of formal Carnival;
groups and individuals compete hard to win.
To be named Calypso Monarch is one of the
island's greatest honours, and the competition
is aired on television. Along with the honor
comes an enormous trophy, a car, TT $500,000
(approx. and possible endorsements and other
contracts. Other prestigious titles are
the King and Queen of the Bands (; the International
Soca Monarch (both Groovy and Power); the
Carnival Road March; and Panorama (for steelpan).
For the latter, the 2007 prize was TT $1
million . There are also limbo, stickfighting,
and other competitions.
As with other
Carnivals, many participants wear elaborate
costumes, often decorated with feathers
and sequins. Carnival "bands"
are organized groups made up of participants
who pay for costumes fashioned by a designer
and assembled by teams of volunteers. The
costumed participants dance through the
streets to the sounds of a steel band, a
soca band or a d.j. - this is called "playing
mas'". A unique feature of this parade
is that locals and tourists alike participate
in the parade of bands. Each band is led
by a King and Queen, who wear extremely
large costumes, often requiring extensions
and wheels to assist the masquerader to
carry it through the streets. Each year
on Dimanche Gras (Carnival Sunday), a competition
is held to award the King and Queen of Carnival
title to two of these masqueraders.
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