Carnival coming!

Islandistas, it is that time of year again - as I logged on to the Trinidad Express site this morning I was feeling it! Their front page pic let you know that Carnival is definitely in the air. Of course, our fellow islandistas over at Trinidad Carnival Diary been feeling de Carnival feeling from when and they have lots of useful tips and advice over there where they breathe Carnival.

[caption id="attachment_497" align="aligncenter" width="321" caption="Photo credit: Curtis Chase for the Trinidad Express"][/caption]

Here at Islandista, we LOVE, love, LOVE Trinidad Carnival. Love it!

Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a recession so the likelihood of us making it down to TnT is slim to none - especially with the rampant eye-jooking going on by regional airlines these days. A few years back when we went to play mas, a ticket to TnT, even at Carnival time, was around US$150. When we went last summer, that same ticket was US$300-plus. In other words, more than TWICE as much!

These airline prices really crimping the islandista lifestyle - how can you island-hop, play mas from island to island, attend music festivals and holiday weekend events and watch cricket like a true islandista when LIAT and Bwee (ye ye Caribbean Airlines whatever) charging no less than US$250 for a plane ride that lasts as long as a maxi-taxi ride to town? Stupssseee...

Meanwhile, de eye-jookers are gloating that bookings are strong for them for Carnival. In an interview with the Express, CA CEO Phillip Saunders said:

"We have very strong bookings for Carnival, some flights are even fully booked. It shows whatever the economic situation is, people remain committed to traveling in the Carnival period."

Damn them. Still, do what you got to do islandistas. If I could squeeze out the vacation, I would squeeze out the money for Carnival too. Even in the midst of these hard times, yuh got to play mas - in fact, especially now.

Anyhow, we digress. CARNIVAL IS COMING! And we here at Islandista are determined to get into the vibe of it so any of you who are going to Carnival or living in Trinidad already have to make sure and help us.

The official launch of Carnival was Friday night and there were four big fetes  over the weekend to start the Carnival festivities -  the  St Francois All-Inclusive Fete,  the Soca in Moka All-Inclusive at Trinity College, the Blazing Soca Fire Fete put on by the Fire Services Association and the Amnesia New Inclusive.

In the coming weeks, we will be reviewing some of the Carnival band costumes, the music coming out of Carnival (which we found disappointing last year - hoping for better this year) and of course, reporting any suss and drama coming out Carnival!

Speaking of suss, we forgot to mention this one when we heard it. Apparently a big soca diva got a huge pay cheque for her New Year's Eve performance - the equivalent of ten grand per song! Unfortunately she only got to sing three songs at the swank NYE event at Barbados'  poshest 'platinum coast' resort before the dissatisfaction of the stoosh crowd forced management to ask her to roll out. tsk...