Icom's Blog – May 2016 Archive (15)

Curacao Carnival is one of the largest such events in the Caribbean. It certainly is the one that lasts the longest, lasting through the entire month of January and most of the month of February. Preparations and Curacao Carnival parties begin even earlier than that, as various krewes (teams responsible for parade floats) begin decorating their parade floats and the bands sponsored by the krewes hold competitions to see who gets the privilege of…

Get into the spirit of Aruba’s biggest party of the year - a month-long celebration with festive street parties known as “jump-ups” and spectacular parades. Lovelies of all ages strut their stuff at Carnival Queen elections, competing for the coveted crown. Aruba Carnivals events are remembered for their powerful music. Winning songs selected at carnival competitions in Aruba include the best calypso with…

When the carnival begins in Santiago de Cuba, the whole city turns into one big party!

The carnival of Santiago de Cuba is the largest, most famous, and most traditional carnival in all of Cuba, and is an explosion of colour, contagious drum rhythms, and dance. It is also a time for Cubans to re-gather themselves and remember their history, community, and culture, and is often punctuated by the Cuban national…

The end of summer means catching all the color and excitement as millions of New Yorkers line up along Eastern Parkway for the Brooklyn Labor Day parade on Monday, September 5, 2016.

This year, the West Indian American Day Parade & Carnival celebrates its 46th anniversary as it continues to enjoy the distinction of being New York City's biggest cultural festivals by far.…

At varying points across the Caribbean, pre-Lenten Carnival celebrations have been ongoing for quite some time now. Never mind that official festival dates are still more than two weeks away, the fun actually started months ago as the joy of decorating floats, designing elaborate costumes and rehearsing new songs and dances make pre-Carnival time almost as much fun as Carnival itself.

While the party starts early…

In Paraty, the “fluminense” city that has the face of Brazil´s 500 years, a block formed by almost prehistoric beings gets out on the stone streets bringing joy and repelling carnival´s bad fluids.

On a carnival´s Saturday, 15 years ago, some friends played with mud in in the mangrove of “Praia do Jabaquara” (“Jabaquara´s Beach”) when they realized that they were unrecognizable. They went out in the city´s…

Calabar Carnival  in Nigeria, furthermore tagged " Africa's Biggest Street Party", was created as part of the dream of making the Cross River State  in Nigeria, the number one tourist place visited for Nigerians and tourist all over the world. The carnival which start on every 1 December and last till 31 December has boosted the heritage mosaic of Nigeria persons while amusing the millions of…

The largest Carnival in Mexico, Mazatlán’s celebration combines elements of a fiesta (mariachi bands, stalls of street food) with Christian imagery and indigenous tradition. Revelers in the streets break confetti-filled hollow eggs (cascarones) on each other, a nod to wilder times more than a century ago when dockworkers exchanged projectiles filled with flour and even stones.

Carnival was officially…

The “Diablos” cover themselves in a mixture of soot and oil and adorn their heads with black stained bull horns as they parade throughout the village with cowbells clanging around their waist to expel the evil spirits. To make their appearance even more fearsome the devils often carry fake teeth made out of raw potatoes. They dance around Luzon and smear their black grease on revellers faces. The only people free from the attack of the “Diablos”…

That was the verdict on the sixth Carnaval International de Victoria, which filled Seychelles’ tiny capital with masquerade and music from Friday 22 to Sunday 24 April. Around 45,000 locals – half the country’s population and a record number of visitors poured into the city to soak up the atmosphere. The excitement had been building for weeks beforehand as radio stations played carnival music, buildings were enveloped in swags of colourful fabric…

How it all began

The Soca Twins arrival on the scene is tightly connected to the general development of Soca music in Germany. The main man in the Soca Twins, Berlin-born FRANKY FIRE first heard of Soca in 1999 when his friend DJ Lou Weed gave him a mixtape. When the veteran DJ Barney Millah then played the first Soca tunes on radio in the year 2000 Franky…

Caribbean and African artists like Olatunji, Machel Montano, and Timaya are reaching across the Atlantic to create a global Carnival sound.

First held in 1988, the annual Atlanta Caribbean Festival in Georgia is a celebration of Caribbean culture and heritage. The one-day carnival extravaganza features a parade packed with floats, marchers and decked-out dancers as well as live musical performances from international artists, authentic Caribbean eats and a festival village.

Check out all the Bands for Atlanta Carnvial 2016:…

Kids ages 6 and up will learn to make costumes at the West Indian American Day Carnival Association workshops, held Saturdays through June 25.

Kids ages 6 and up will learn to make costumes at the West Indian American Day Carnival Association workshops, held Saturdays through June 25. The 2016 Caribbean Carnival Design Workshop — free sessions of culture, craftsmanship, creativity and wonder — starts Saturday…