05-04-2025
Six Trends From Trinidad Carnival 2025 Worth Cheering About
Trinidad Carnival (Photo by Sean Drakes/LatinContent via Getty Images)
Devotees of Trinidad Carnival study the season for sport. This means that we take meticulous, scholarly note of every single thing about the Caribbean's biggest annual bacchanal: which food was served at which fete (party); what soca song played however many times at said fete; who wore what onstage at which show; which soca performer lost his voice first for the season, on account of the obscene number of performances he or she completed on a given night (there ought be a Guinness Book of World Records category for that; odds are the iconic Trinidadian soca star Machel Montano would take the title). To be swept up in the season is, in short, to spend weeks saturated in frenzied running commentary about Carnival and only Carnival.
To that end, I distill the takeaways from Trinidad Carnival 2025, which wrapped with a joyous bang last month, into six trends worth cheering about, especially as we (and the omnipresent Carnival Bible TriniJungleJuice) gear up for more commentary on the broader Caribbean Carnival season ahead, from Jamaica to Barbados to Miami—and back to Trinidad again in 2026.
Advertisement for Mecka fete
Bringing Culture Back Never mind bringing sexy back—that's par for the course at Trinidad Carnival. It's a beautiful moment for bringing culture back. To be clear, it never left; for those who cared to partake in the traditional elements of Carnival—springing from the beautiful revolutionary legacy of the festival, rooted in histories of enslavement and the resurrection of African traditions—they have always been there for the taking. But now big-name promoters are finding ingenious ways to infuse modern-day Carnival fetes with the spiritual ritual that is Carnival.
Case in point: wOw Events' Mecka, a grand fete on the Queen's Park Savannah, where traditional Carnival characters like Blue Devils and Dame Lorraine—a parody of the French plantation wife—roam the grounds and the stage is blanketed with intricately costumed characters; and wOw's's Iron Park, my favorite fete for the season: in creative homage to the genius invention that is the steel pan, Trinidad's national instrument, the main event here is a pairing of famous pan orchestras with feted DJs for a pore-raising musical mashup. Another case in point: The annual Lost Tribe fete, Feteyard, selects one Carnival character to, for its theme, reinvent in modern-day context; this year they ingeniously transformed the stick fighting tradition—a local martial art rooted in African traditions—into a contemporary boxing match, complete with ring as stage, stunning stick fight performance to open the show and comic-book decor throughout. Dear Promoters: more of this vibe, please!
Opening of Welcome to Freetown
Shaking Up the Same-Old Same Old The unofficial mantra of Trinidad Carnival might as well be, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.' This is because you will go to the same sort of fetes, hear the same soca songs and see the same performers for days or weeks on end. And you know what? It will not get old. The whole Carnival experience is actually a fine line between indoctrination, brainwashing and glorious community building.
But dare I say it: every now and then, in the midst of the bacchanal, you might crave something different. Now there are options. At Bass Yard parties, you get your soca blended with electronic music and drum n bass, in a dance-heavy, intimate setting. This year brought the ruthlessly popular Nigerian party Obi's House to Trinidad Carnival, which meant a chance to hear Afrobeats and Amapiano with a funky-cool pan-African crowd. And the annual Welcome to Freetown show blends Carnival energy with Carnival consciousness, as the six-part musical collective known for incisive lyrics and creative expression perform with vibrancy and passion.
King of Soca Nostalgia: Bunji Garlin
Old-School Vibes Come Back Again Back in the day, as Carnival veterans like to say, Carnival parties were not the fancy affairs they are today. There were no cell phones, which meant that if you attended a fete, you were not there for swiping and selfies. You were there to dance, sweat, jump and wave. You wore sneakers and t-shirts. And you left drunk, exhausted and exhilerated.
There is a soca star whose lyrical currency is nostalgia for those days: Bunji Garlin. And this year he launched a fete that is actually a movement: Hard Fete—its title taken from his 2023 smash hit about the good-old days of Carnival—instructed attendees to wear shorts, sneakers and flag; leave your phones at home, came the directive, and be ready to jump and sweat. It was his music brought to life—a glorious soca time machine that certainly started something big.
Simple-yet-impactful innovation: Self-serve drink trucks on the road with Tribe
New-School Things Make Life Easier While we're in nostalgia mode, it is worth noting that once upon a time part of the experience of Trinidad Carnival was hustling for fete tickets. There was no easy way to obtain them, after all; it was a kind of scavenger hunt involving knowing someone who knows someone who has one for sale—and when you finally got that ticket it felt like winning the lottery. Now the pressure is no more; we have new-school innovations: Island e-tickets is a powerful one-stop shop, and Haeven puts a whole curated Carnival package on one electronic wristband, which comes with its own VIP entrance at the fetes.
Other innovations: Carnival band Tribe—the inventor of the all-inclusive Carnival concept that's now de rigeur for the Carnival Monday and Tuesday experience—unveiled self-serve drink trucks, which might sound like a small thing but to anyone who has ever battled crowds wielding a cup to reach the bartender on that moving truck (i.e. anyone who has ever played mas), it's a grand innovation. Tribe also added a fan zone to its band, allowing revelers to cool down under colossal fans, and a beer bus serving draft beer and plenty of laughs.
Steel pan
Freedom Can be Free The words 'budget' and 'Trinidad Carnival' shall never be uttered in the same sentence. In fact, regulars' favorite thing to moan about, year after year, is the ever-mounting cost of Carnival fete tickets and costumes. But now there are ways to enjoy some bacchanal on a budget, proving that the freedom of Carnival can actually be free. So-called 'pavement limes'—free street parties attracting top soca performers and DJs—are staged all season long; the best one, by blockbuster promoters Scorch, transforms Ariapita Avenue into an all-inclusive fete (all-inclusive meaning it's not just for those who can afford it).
Each year the performances at the free John Cupid Carnival Village in the Queen's Park Savannah, run by the National Carnival Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, get better and better, serving up a variety of Trinidadian art forms, including the lyrical battles of Extempo music and the social commentary that is calypso. The steel pan yards all over Trinidad are nothing short of a gift to the masses, beckoning each night with magical music and local eats. And on select nights in Paramin, a village about 30 minutes from Port of Spain, the traditional Blue Devils—a Carnival character representing resistance and rebellion—take over town and transform the place into a mad street party like you've never seen before.
Yung Bredda performing at Stink + Dutty fete
A Younger Generation of Artists Gets Some Shine Carnival season is for the soca stars, who make the musical gas that fuels the whole ecstatic engine. Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin, Kes—they are soca royalty, and the whole of Carnival could not be without the likes of them. But now there are more opportunities for a newer generation of artists—performers like Yung Bredda and Nailah Blackman, both of whom earned hit tunes this season—to rise up and be heard. They even have their own platform: the launch of Ultimate Soca Champion saw up-and-coming artists compete for a cash prize; the Finals night was held live in the Savannah and attracted a vast crowd of fans.
