Trinidad, St. Lucia use Miami Carnival to launch their ‘Come back home’ campaign

It is rejuvenation and political expression, an explosion of color and costumes moving to the pulsating rhythms of steel pan drums and Calypso and soca rhymes as people across the Caribbean celebrate who they are.

Now, the biggest local celebration of Caribbean culture, Miami Carnival is also being used as a vehicle to help revive Caribbean tourism in a post COVID-19 pandemic era.

Tourism officials from both Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia are in South Florida this weekend not only to enjoy Miami’s take on the pre-Lenten Mardis Gras debauchery first-hand, but to launch their own respective carnivals. Just as Miami Carnival draws thousands to Miami-Dade and Broward counties each year for the steel band competitions, hundreds of parties (there are 200 this year, one organizer claims) before Sunday’s parade of bands and concert finale at the Miami-Dade County Fairgrounds, 10901 SW 24th St., they are hoping it can do the same for them.

In two separate events last week, soca and Calypso artists joined National Carnival Committee members and tourism officials as they unveiled their plans for Carnival 2024. The hope is that as revelers “end” the Caribbean carnival circuit in Miami this Columbus Day weekend, they will be enticed to kick it off in just a few months in Trinidad and later join the bacchanal in St. Lucia.

Carnival, which takes place in the Caribbean and Latin America, has long been a driver of tourism, contributing $124 million to countries’ economies, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. There are the costume makers, the musicians and performers, and of course the vendors who cash in not just on the sequins and music, but the overall revelry.

“Last year, we had an international launch of Carnival right here in Miami and this year, we are back in Miami,” said Thaddeuus Antoine, chairman of the St. Lucia Tourism Authority. “It allows us to have our diaspora who live in Miami, and also in the U.S. to come across and express how they feel about our Carnival and the views that they have, and give us suggestions.”

St. Lucia’s Carnival is scheduled from July 10 to July 17. Antoine, partly joking, said if visitors can’t come for all three weeks, then they should come for one if not two weeks.

“When you come to a carnival, you just don’t come for the party, for the costumes and events,” he said. “You come for the adventure, you come for the romance, you come for the nature, you come for the cuisine, you come for our hospitality, and St. Lucia has a hospitality that is second to none.”

Last year, St. Lucia attracted more than 10,000 visitors over a period of five days to its carnival. This year, there were 16,000 visitors, a number the government is hoping to surpass next year as it bets on the celebration to promote its creativity and authentic, home-spawn products.

Along with the pitch, the invitation-only crowd at Briza on the Bay on Thursday night was also treated to a taste of the island’s carnival offerings: There were beaded, barely-there embellished locally-designed costumes, tamarind preserves treats and of course, soca performances.

Artist Teddyson John, fresh off a performance in Dallas, made a surprise appearance, where he gave a tutorial on St. Lucian Creole as he sang his song, “Pale, Pale, Pale.”

“Pale, means ‘Talk,’” he said, as the crowd danced and sang along with him.

Ezra D’Funmachine, another well known performer, sang his Caribbean-wide 2021 soca hit, “On Di Road,” which also mixes English and St. Lucia Creole lyrics. The artist, who also was serving as co-host of the event, said the level of investment in carnival in St. Lucia has been “absolutely tremendous.”

“I’m truly proud of us as a nation, of our carnival bands,” said the artist, whose real name is Ezra Augustin.

But he noted, “St. Lucia isn’t just about carnival, it’s about us as a destination.”

Since 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Caribbean nations have been struggling to rebuild their tourism. The pandemic led to a shutdown of borders throughout the region, devastating economies in many countries that are dependent on tourism dollars to stay afloat.

Now trying to bounce back, they are looking at carnival, and Miami Carnival, as a key driver.

“We want you to come back home,” Beverly Ramsey-Moore, president of Pan Trinbago said on Friday as the Trinidadian community hosted a launch of its country’s carnival at Central Broward Park on the sidelines of the Miami Carnival Steel Band Panorama competition. “Spend the entire season.”

Considered the “mother of all carnivals,” Trinidad and Tobago is the birthplace of the modern-day carnival and in 2019, the year before COVID-19, it drew more than 35,000 visitors. Winston Gypsy Peters, chairman of the National Carnival Committee, said they are in Miami not just to encourage people to consider traveling to Trinidad for its carnival but also to get feedback on how to improve so that they can “take carnival global.”

Trinidad’s Carnival calendar begins with Nov. 5 and the launch of Panorama and goes until Feb. 17, 2024. The re-enactment of the Canboulay riots of 1881, which usually marks the start of the carnival, is on Feb. 9 in Port-of-Spain. The riots erupted after the British failed in their attempt to ban emancipated slaves from celebrating their freedom with their carnival celebrations.

“Come February, 12th and 13th, 2024, our proud nation is seriously ready, willing and able to welcome the world for the greatest carnival experience on earth,” Peters said of the two days when revelers can enjoy J’ouvert and the traditional parade.

To give a taste of what one can experience in Trinidad, organizers featured stilt walkers, steel pan drum performances and performers dressed as traditional characters. There were Blue Devils, whose job it is to strike fear in the hearts of spectator and mas players, and Baby Doll, the mother with an illegitimate baby who walks around the room in a satirical portrayal while dressed in a frilled dress with gloves.

And while it’s the 50th year since the founding of soca music, the focus among this crowd was on the music that birthed it: Calypso. The art form originated in the twin-island during the early to mid -19th century and is the cornerstone upon which the country’s musical landscape is shaped.

Rafiek Mohammed, a member of the Miami-Broward One Carnival Host committee and native of Trinidad, said he doesn’t mind others turning to Miami Carnival to showcase their celebrations.

“It’s one Caribbean,” he said. “We are spreading the word and spreading the culture all over.”

And as for Miami Carnival, which is now in its 39th year, Mohammed said, “It has grown by leaps and bounds. We are the largest event in South Florida for our Caribbean diaspora.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Miami Carnival

WHEN: 10901 SW 24th St., Miami, Fl., 33165 (Parade of Band and Concert)

TICKETS: $20-$2500

For more information go to https://miamicarnival.org