7 Reasons Why Trinidad's Carnival Is The Greatest Festival On Earth

Add this to your bucket list.

Trinidad & Tobago celebrates Carnival for two days—the Monday and Tuesday prior to Ash Wednesday. The country shuts down and people of all ages, races, customs and backgrounds parade on the streets in the burning sun dressed in beaded and feathered costumes. It's the best way to throw social expectations aside and express yourself in any way, shape or form.

It's time for you to chip, jump and leh' go too. Here's why:

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1. Sweet, Sweet Music

Calypso music or kaiso, originated in Trinidad & Tobago, is known for it's social and political commentary sung to Afro-Caribbean-style rhythms.

Listen to this classic:

Soca, derived from calypso, has fast beats influenced by cadence, Soul, Funk and Indian musical instruments. The saucy, raunchy lyrics generate bacchanal—it's music to jump, sweat, wave and wine to.

Give this a listen:

2. Panorama

This annual music competition, usually held a week or two before Carnival, tests the musical skill of pannists and steelbands.

If you have not heard of steelpan, you're missing out.

Get your dose of pan here:

3. Liquor

Take two shots and pass the rum.

Alcohol flows like water in the Carnival season. Your liver will hate you once you start drinking Punchy Punch (puncheon, a lethal form of alcohol, mixed with fruit juice).

A little piece of advice: Make sure you taste both Carib and Stag, Trinidad's authentic brewed beers.

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4. Fete After Fete

Prepare for a week of sleep deprivation.

The parties leading up to Carnival attract enormous crowds and feature live performances from soca musicians. Some fetes require you bring your own drinks in a cooler, and others include the cost of food and drink in ticket prices.

Nothing's better than stuffing your face with a hot doubles while Machel Montano belts out tunes on stage.

You need to experience this:

5. Jouvert

Carnival begins in the wee early hours of Monday morning. Revelers party in paint, mud, oil, chocolate and powder till the sun comes up—and some even channel the island's history by dressing as devils and demons.

Via youtube.com

This video explains it all.

6. Carnival Monday and Tuesday: The Greatest Show on Earth

The streets flood with bright, flamboyant colors. Fast beats & tantalizing rhythms blare from speakers piled on trucks that roll through the crowd. Masqueraders jump up and down the street wining, chippin', jumpin' and lehin' go.

Revelers "play mas" in different bands that compete to win "Band of the Year." At 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, thousands of masqueraders revel in full costume impatiently waiting to "cross the stage" where television cameras surround main judging points. Once the competition and the band's formal parade ends, bands roam wherever they want until the clocks strike 12.

YOU MUST EXPERIENCE THIS:

If you enjoyed that video, this one's even better...

7. Freedom

Find a wall, a gate, a traffic light, a street sign or a police officer–whatever your heart fancies. Everyone is wining (what we call gyrating your hips) in sync with the sweet soca beats.

In, 1877, the Trinidad Guardian newspaper called for "a refinement of our vulgar tastes." The government tried to stop the duttiness and failed. We will forever be wotless.

Women rub their bottoms against men—hell, some even go horizontal—but it's all for fun. Everyone's just out there to have a good time.

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CAUTION

Don't say I never warned you.

Tabanca, the love-sick state of depression, is real. Too real. Nothing will ever compare to all the fun you had dancing in the street on Monday and Tuesday.

That depression will only get worse once you try to get that feeling anywhere else. No party will ever be the same in America or in any other country. The overall party vibe in Trinidad is just so unique.

You will have to play carnival again the year after, and the year after that.

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