Barbados and Trinidad have two festivals that seem to compete with each other as far as which one is the best: Barbados Crop Over Festival and Trinidad Carnival. Each one is very culture centric so you get to enjoy the music, food and customs, but which one is better will vary greatly depending on who you ask.
Here’s a comparison of Barbados Crop Over vs. Trinidad Carnival, so that you can decide for yourself.
Barbados Crop Over Festival
Barbados Crop Over Carnival 2021 will be from Wednesday, July 28, 2021 until Tuesday, August 3, 2021. This near two month festival of Barbadian music, arts, food, culture. It features Calypso & SOCA music and a lot of competitions. The competition tents hold events where individuals are given songs and they have to out sing everyone else in order to win. These competitions can be fierce! Not only is the singing judged, but the props and choreography is as well. Just like with most festivals, there are tents that sell food and crafts. It seems like every day there are different street parties that tend to crop up out of nowhere. Barbados ends the festivities with a grand carnival parade know as Kadooment Day. It is a national holiday and performers line the streets while wearing with lavish costumes. The event starts early morning at the National Stadium and beautiful masquerade bands traverse the local city streets ending on Spring Garden highway late in the afternoon. Fireworks are set off while Barbadian music is played in the background. If you want to participate and purchase costume, save around $500 to $900 in your budget. Its time to start planning your Barbados Vacation package today.
Trindad and Tobago Carnival
Celebrated each year on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday in Trinidad and Tobago. The Carnival dates back to the 18th century. It’s similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans as it started as a way to get in one last hurrah before giving up something for Lent. This is a big event in this country and many individuals actually prepare for it all year long. Soca music has recently replaced calypso as the music of choice for this event. The festivities generally consist of street parades with colorful costumes and highly competitive limbo and stick fighting competitions. One huge competition that airs on TV is the musical competition, Calypso Monarch. Competitors compete not only for notoriety, but cash, a car and a huge trophy among other things. Throughout the Carnival festivities participants wear costumes that are decorated with things like sequins and feathers. They are very elaborate in nature and take days, if not weeks to construct. Costumes cost more in Trindad – starting at around $800 and going up to $1,600 depending on how intricate.
Mellow Versus Wild
The vibes of both festivals are very different. Crop Over is more lively and upbeat. Carnival has a more mellow, yet competitive feel.
It must be noted that the beaches in Barbados are no doubt superior to those in Trinidad. Also I am not ashamed to admit I can be boujie when I travel, and I find that you can have a better selection of 4 and 5 star hotels in Barbados.
You really can’t go wrong by choosing one of these festivals over the other. No matter which one you go too, be prepared for a lot of great music, spontaneous dancing and extravagant costumes.
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Black Music Festivals
