Carnival is an annual festival where people of Trinidad and Tobago flood the streets with colorful costumes, street parades, dance and music. It’s held before Christmas and ends on a Tuesday before ashe Wednesday. Carnival assembles people from all over the world together to express your inner-self and have fun. It is often described at the greatest show on earth. Carnivale is a very significant festival, evolving into to Trinidad’s national festival of the country. In 1498, Christopher Columbus brought the Spanish over to the island of Trinidad in which the spanish ultimately took over but took little interest in the island. Throughout the years, fewer settlers remained until King Carlos III extended an invitation to catholic French Caribbean’s to resettle on the island luring thousands of Frenchmen including their slaves. After the emancipation in 1834-38, the British imported Indians, prouguese, Chinese, syrrians and Yoruba Africans, giving Trinidad a multicultural community.
Most of Trinidads musical vitality and cultural dynamism is all due to the British rule. Carnivale started as the French plantation owners organized events full of masquerades and balls before the fasting of lent. Salves were not able to partake in carnival but celebrated in their own fashion in their backyards called camboulay. In the mid 1800’s with the French British retreating in fear, blacks had dominated the event. Soon enough a new generation of carnival was born, taking on its own characteristics with street dances cambouley processions, stick fighting and masquerade troups.
Carnival music was coalescing into 2 main types; masquerade bands and stick fighting bands. Masquerade bands consisted of people dressed in costumes led by a chantwell. Stick Fighting bands also had chantwells but they roamed the streets looking for a worthy opponent. Masquerade bands would set up tents, here members would prepare their costumes and practice their songs. Tents gained a lot popularity, attracting vistitors resulting in bands charging admission fees. As the chantwell tent songs grew and