Trinidad & Tobago

Trinidad & Tobago Carnival
February 4-5, 2008

"CARNIVAL" is a festival of colors, which is transformed into costumes. (Mas short for masquerade), calypso, steel band music, dance and an array of different ethnic food and caribbean art which attracts millions of people from around the globe. Carnival was actually originated in Africa. It's a festival marked by merrymaking and processions. It's a year-round business entity which provides enjoyments to millions of people. It also increases tourism, provides employment and social stability. Trinidad and Tobago carnival usually takes place on the 2/19 to 2/20. This is second to none and is comparable to any, anywhere in the world. Trinidad and Tobago carnival is a grand pageantry of beauty and color overflowing the street of this little nation. Although officially a five-day celebration of partying, steelband music, and calypso singing, the unofficial party is jumpstarted just after Christmas with the launching of the Mas Bands, and climaxes with the grand parade of thousands of colorful masqueraders dancing and celebrating to the sound of hot spirited calypso music on the streets of the capital city Port-of Spain. The entire nation as well as visitors participates in this celebration, rich and poor, employee and employer, this stage becomes a unifying force of one country, and all barriers, status and inhibitions are broken at Carnival time. The celebration begins with J'Overt (pronounce jooVEY), which sets the stage for the parade of the bands on Monday and Tuesday. Although there are other parts of the world that have carnival, Trinidad and Tobago carnival is as unique as the people.
The word "Carnival" some say originated from Latin and thus adopted by the Catholic Religion is a traditional festival held before the first day of the Lenten season, which was spread throughout the Catholic countries in Europe. This practice is said to have traveled with the French, Spanish and Portuguese as they took control of the American and other parts of the world. It is true that both the Spanish and British ruled the little twin nation at one time or the other. It is said that Carnival was introduced to Trinidad around the period of the late 1960's. It originally was a ball for the elitist slave owners, when they wore masks and gowns and danced. The slaves who was not allowed to these galas began their own, using their African customs and costumes. This continued to an annual basis and it grew larger and soon outshined the balls of their former owners. Year after year this festival gets larger and larger, as it overtakes the country the content which is breathtaking. The serenading of the steelpan as the players delve deep down into their very being to bring out an instrumental version of one of the Calypso sung by the many calypsonians during the season.
 
CALYPSO:The songs and music that are sung during the carnival season. Calypsos ranges in themes from extremely political, and mentions both the good and bad of the government's action. They tell a general story of life on the Island, speaks on the behalf of the injustice towards the population, or they can also be raunchy comedy. Skilled musicians expertly arrange the music, which makes it easy to be transformed to steelband.
CALYPSONIANS: These are the men and women the write the calypsos that make the music for the steel bands and the parties during the carnival season.
MAS/ COSTUMES BANDS:Mass Players clad in exotic and colorful costumes depicting themes of each individual Band. There are hundreds of Bands that produce costumes each year, with different sections telling a part of the story of the theme of each individual band. Costumes prices varies depending on size and designs. The preparation for carnival is nothing less than phenomenal. It begins months in advance as the costume for a chosen theme are designed and printed, and each band conducts a launching of their costumes, that show the style of costume. Prices per customer range from $100.00 US and up, ranges in sizes and are custom made to the size of the masquerader. Costumes come in all sizes, from small to the extremely large, which are entered into a competition, the winners to be judged as King and Queen.
HISTORY: The national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago birthed from the depressed area of the capital city Port-of Spain. The pan is the only instrument to be invented in the 20th century. Created from oil drums in 1946 by a native Trinidadian Winston "Spree" Simon. A very versatile instrument that has six categories and covers ever chord of music can be played singularly or in 100+ orchestras from the streets of Trinidad to the concert hall of Madison Square Gardens. Pan as it was called, came out of the creativity of the underprivileged, and unemployed young men of Trinidad who took simply empty oil drum and created this legendary musical instrument. It was soon discovered that the indentations with a hammer on the base of an empty Oil Drum, when struck with a stick, brought out a sound and the possibility of music. The discovery sparked a series of experiments, and as time went on it was realized that heating the drums, and by varying the sizes and dept of the indentation, it was possible to get more notes with different tones when cut at varying lengths. A piece of stick with rubber wrapped around one end became the tool that would be use to stroke the notes from these drums. As time went on the development and variation of the instrument changed to where the drum could play a complete eight-note scale. This brought about the formation of bands across the land. The bands were made up of the Tenor pan (which was called the Ping Pong), double seconds, guitars, cellos and bass.
PANORAMA:1963 was the year that the Steelband began to compete against each other. This competition was called Panorama, which caught the fancy of both of both the public and the panman. The competition required no special effort from the bands, thus a tune was selected from what was already known by the players and played on stage for the judges. The Pan/Jazz Festival is a competition, which requires a series of elimination contests with pan orchestras from all over the world. The musical pieces are judged and bands are eliminated until there is a final that determines the winner. Points are given each round of the competition and those points are carried forward to the next round. The competitions are usually so close that it is very intriguing and many people attend to hear and see what beautiful can emanate from steel drums. There are countries all over the world that are now pushing Trinidad and Tobago, the land of birth of the steel band music to greater heights. These bands usually consist of ex- Trinidadian nationalists who have gone overseas to introduce pan music to other countries.

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Official 2008 Parade Route


TnT Mas Bands

Tribe                                                       Island People                                           Brian Macfarlane
Portrayal: Myths & Magic                         Portrayal: Animal Instinct                            Portrayal: Earth
Contact: (868)625-6800                           contact: (868)625-1FUN                           contact: (868)265-8931
e-mail: info@carnivaltribe.com                   e-mail: info@islandpeoplemas.com             e-mail: macfds@gmail.com
website: www.CarnivalTribe.com              website: www.islandpeoplemas.com           website: www.Macfarlanecarnival.com

Trini Revellers                                        Harts                                                         Legacy
Portrayal:                                                   Portrayal:                                                    Portrayal:
contact:David Cameron                             contact: (868)622-8038                              contact: (868) 622-7466
(868)628-7275 or (868)683-3620            e-mail: harts@hartscarnival.com                  e-mail: info@legacycarnival.com
or Enrico Rajah (868)623-8835 or            website: www.hartscarnival.com                  website: www.legacycarnival.com
(868)745-4391
e-mail: Trini.Revellers@hotmail.com                                                                                                                              
website:www.TriniRevellersmas.com

Masquerade                                            Pulse8                                                       Sonia Mack
Portrayal:                                                   Portrayal:                                                    Portrayal:
contact: (868)623-2161                             contact:(868)627-8330                              contact: (868) 622-3805
e-mail: info@masquerade.co.tt                   e-mail: info@pulse8carnival.com                 e-mail: soniamack1@yahoo.com
website: www.masquerade.co.tt                 website: www.Pulse8carnival.com              website: www.Soniamack.com

2Ha'Quai                                                  Dream Team                                            Genesis Mas Band
Portrayal:                                                    Portrayal: Bejeweled                                   Portrayal:
contact: (868)766-8261 or                         contact:                                                       contact: (868)622-8060
(868)790-9859                                          e-mail: info@dreamteamtnt.com                   web: www.GenesisCarnival.com
website: www.2haquai.com                        website: www.dreamteamtnt.com

ImageNation                                             Trevor Wallace                                       
Portrayal: La Brea, the story of....                 Portrayal:
contact: (868)628-0253                               contact: (868)628-4185 or
website: www.ImageNationltd.com              (868)684-1639
                                                                    e-mail: trevor@trevorwallacemas.com
                                                                    website: www.trevorwallacemas.com

Kiddies Carnival bands




Jouvay Bands