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Witness / Attend in Port of Spain
Trinidad Carnival
The capital of Trinidad and Tobago on the northwest coast of Trinidad, a lively port city below the Northern Range. It is the cradle of Carnival, calypso and the steelpan, built around the wide Queen's Park Savannah, and its panyards, mas camps and fete culture make it the loudest and most creative city in the southern Caribbean.
Scheduled and sanctioned by National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
Trinidad Carnival is the original Caribbean Carnival and still the biggest and most musically serious of them all, the event every other island's carnival is descended from. For the two days before Ash Wednesday, Port of Spain becomes a moving festival: tens of thousands of masqueraders in costume cross the stage at the Queen's Park Savannah with their bands, calypso and soca blast from music trucks, and the streets belong to the road. It begins before dawn on Carnival Monday with J'ouvert, when revellers cover themselves in mud, oil, paint and chocolate and follow steelbands through the dark, and builds through two days of the Parade of the Bands. Around it sits a whole season of competition that is the real depth of the thing: the Panorama steelband final, the Calypso Monarch, the Soca Monarch and the crowning of the Carnival King and Queen at Dimanche Gras. You can watch from the stands, or register with a mas band and play mas yourself, which is how Trinidadians say Carnival is meant to be experienced. Book flights and rooms months ahead, because the whole city fills.
Best months
Carnival falls on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, so it moves with the Christian calendar between early February and early March, in the middle of the dry season when the weather is hot and reliable. The Panorama final is the Saturday before, Dimanche Gras the Sunday, and J'ouvert in the pre-dawn hours of Carnival Monday. Expect very large crowds, closed roads across central Port of Spain, and the whole island in motion; accommodation books out many months ahead.
Getting there & around
Port of Spain is about a 40-minute drive from Piarco International Airport, and Carnival events cluster around the Queen's Park Savannah and the surrounding Woodbrook and St Clair districts, all walkable or a short taxi hop apart. Watching the parade from the Savannah stands or a fete is straightforward; playing mas means registering with a band months ahead and collecting a costume in the week before. During the two days much of the centre closes to traffic, so base yourself in or near Woodbrook. Book accommodation as early as possible.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago
OrganizerThe National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago is the statutory body, established in 1991, that plans and coordinates the national Carnival and its official competitions. It runs the season that builds to Carnival Monday and Tuesday, from the Panorama steelband contest and the Calypso Monarch to Dimanche Gras and the Parade of the Bands across the Queen's Park Savannah stage, and publishes the official dates and full event schedule each year.
TRIBE Carnival
ClubTRIBE is the largest of Trinidad's modern Carnival mas bands, founded in 2004 and based at a mas camp on Rosalino Street in Woodbrook, Port of Spain. Visitors who want to play mas rather than only watch register for one of its costume sections and join the band on the road for the full two days of Carnival Monday and Tuesday, with premium drinks, meals, music trucks and security included. It anchors a family of bands that also includes Bliss, The Lost Tribe and Harts.