After two years apart, due to the pandemic, four friends used the carnival season as a chance to meet up and party. Unlike in Jamaica and Trinidad, in St Lucia, Carnival is a big summer event that is followed by Carnival in Antigua, Kadooment Day in Barbados and ends off with Spicemas in Grenada in early August.

It is an homage to culture, history, freedom and unity from each of these islands with their own unique takes.

“Carnival to me is the greatest commodity of the world. It lends itself to cater to every type of person that wants to indulge. The freedom and the revelry provides an avenue for the masquerader, and the very existence of it creates a platform for entertainers, and employment across many different professions, all while still contributing to the economy of where it’s held,” said Shanareah Taylor, managing director of Caribbean culture and entertainment platform, Renlim Entertainment.

“The difference across carnivals is usually inspired by the culture of that country. The truth is it’s all one mas, one experience – the same jump, typically to the same music with slight variations,” said Taylor.

In an interview with Our Today, the vibrant team – four friends from four islands – share their carnival experiences. They’ve all taken part in carnival in their home countries and for the first time as a group they had the chance to experience a carnival together outside of Jamaica.

Aura Charles is from St Lucia and lives in Jamaica where she works as a project manager. Cinthia Jeremy is from Martinique and Guadeloupe and lives in Dominica where she works as the coordinator at the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce network. Marie-Noelle Brunot is from and lives in Martinique where she works as a project manager and Stephanie Sewell is from Jamaica and works as a senior consulting officer with the Government of Jamaica.

Since being apart from each other over the last two years, due to the pandemic, they decided that since they all love soca and carnival they should all experience the carnival in St Lucia together.

“We picked St Lucia Carnival this year because we heard it was going to be a fun, no-miss event, plus it was a chance to visit Aura’s home,” said Sewell.

What’s the difference between St Lucia and other carnivals?

“The last carnival we did was Jamaica Carnival with Xamayca in 2019. It’s hard to compare but I’d say even though I enjoy Jamaica Carnival, it feels like it’s borrowing from other islands – there’s nothing wrong with that, per say, but it doesn’t feel as authentic for me as St Lucia’s Carnival. Over there, I didn’t feel as cautious or self-conscious, people were more together, everybody was friendly. There were people doing whatever made them enjoy themselves: dancing around, running up a hill, climbing a pole or a fence, breaking tree branches. Carnival there means to be free and enjoy jumping and being in unison with each other and I didn’t quite feel that with Jamaica Carnival. If you’re from a different island you have to approach it with an open mind, they’re not the same thing,” said Charles.

“Jamaica Carnival was fine but, if I were to describe the St Lucia Carnival in two words, it would be Sun and Fun! I’d always heard about carnival in St Lucia and I watched it from the side lines before. What else I really liked were all of the parties in the season. Their J’ouvert was the best I’ve ever been to. In Martinique our carnival doesn’t have a truck and costume culture like the rest of the Caribbean. All our bands have drums and we have our own music where everyone can choose to follow any band throughout the march,” said Brunot.

Jeremy expressed similar thoughts to Brunot but also pointed out that she also gets a similar feeling of freedom in Martinique.

“Carnival in St Lucia was interesting as someone from the Eastern Caribbean, I knew most of the songs there, a lot of Dennery segment which makes sense cause this is where they’re from. I was surprised they were playing club music at some points on the road. I loved how nice the people were all along the way, we never had any issues, I loved crossing the stage, that was a first for me. I loved all the parties especially the Mess J’ouvert, that one was exceptional,” said Jeremy.

“The Road March was interesting, it was different from home in Jamaica because, you get a more authentic experience here because this is where the music comes from. So there’s a lot of [national] pride mixed up with it, it’s a lot less focused on the ‘looking pretty’ element and much more focused on just genuinely enjoying yourself, which I could really feel,” said Sewell.

“I saw people from lots of other countries there too. There are some things I didn’t particularly like, I’m not sure if it’s just because of the band I was in, they didn’t manage the rope situation very well- there were lots of stormers, The drinks were kind of hard to get but that’s what you get from a moving truck. The roads are narrower, so sometimes it got hard to maneuver around the trucks.”

She added: “The food situation was also weird for me, in Jamaica our bands have a designated rest stop where we can get food and chill, over there you had to get your food and keep moving and I don’t think that they had anything prepared for people who are vegetarian, it was literally chicken or pork. So that was a little odd, but you know, nevertheless being able to just kind of be in town and seeing the crowds on either side, whether they were vendors or of spectators, it was still really good to see. It feels like there’s all Island involvement in the experience and I loved to see that.”

The ladies all expressed their enjoyment and their eagerness to continue their carnival rendezvous, next time in Grenada for Spicemas.

Potential revellers can estimate a ball park figure anywhere between US$1,800 and US$2,000 to cover airfare, accommodation, the road march and events.