Carnival

Festival Location: St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands

Festival Type(s): Carnivals, Street Parades, Parties

Carnival Time!

By: © Carol O'Donnell 2009

It's Carnival Baby! That translates into a month long Hol-i-day for all people of St. Thomas. Carnival comes every April to this Virgin Island and with it are all the sights and sounds that comprise the Super Bowl of Caribbean Culture. The beginning of April starts slow and builds with heated anticipation of the upcoming events that culminate into the last week of the month. The fireworks display on the final night of carnival appropriately ends the festival with a bang.

Calypso music abounds and reverberates as troops practice their craft in anticipation of the VI Calypso Competition. This year hosts the first Latin Music Festival complete with artists from Puerto Rico, South America and the US. The musical arena, Lionel Roberts Stadium, thumps every night and appears to dance and sway to the tropical sounds just as those who come to listen.

Everyone, young and not so young, have their own piece of the action, an activity to call their own. Of course, what is a festival without royalty? The coronation of the Carnival Queen and Prince and Princess revels in all its pageantry in the Emancipation Garden. Adults, pre-teens and seniors each have their own Carnival Tramp. The Carnival Tramp can best be described as an authorized Caribbean block party. Clustered participants take over Veteran's Drive (the main street along the waterfront and shopping). The normal bumper-to-bumper traffic is transformed into one mass of people shimming down the waterfront. Music thumps from the flatbeds that hold the calypso bands, which periodically break the snarled lines of human traffic. This jam is NOT the five o'clock traffic jam, its called J'ouvert and it jams!

The children have their very own parade that is always scheduled the day prior to the adult parade. The kids show off their flamboyant costumes, many of which have been carefully and lovingly created by their mothers. Ah, a parent's joy to watch their little one take their day in the sun.

The adult parade is the big kahuna of all activities. Flowers, feathers, sequins, ribbons and bows adorn the troope members that march down the street. Creative talents are utilized by each troope to achieve the cumulative effect of human art. Music transforms into a wondrous entity that takes possession of everyone within its immediate area. Once voluntary movements now become owned by the music. Body parts begin to move and sway to the calypso sounds wafting through the streets.

The day ends with a fireworks display downtown along the waterfront. A barge containing the fireworks is taken into the harbor for the 9pm launch. Boats with eager viewers travel from all over to the area to anchor for the spectacle. "Ohh... Ahh..." is collectively heard throughout the display. For this brief time the island takes a rest from the adrenaline laden activities and everyone pauses for these few moments to take in the exploding colors.

Thus ends the carnival. But carnival never really ends and the rapture is always recaptured. Even as Carnival Village is packed away one can hear the buzz from those who are beginning their plans for next year.

by Carol O'Donnell