Arguably the best carnival experience in the Caribbean, if not the world everybody wants to be a Trini after experiencing Carnival in T&T. The French and African history coming together to influence great festivals is a common theme in the Caribbean it seems and in Trinidad & Tobago it is no different. The French would hold masquerade parties, a last celebration before the onerous duty of fasting for Lent. Excluded from celebrating the enslaved formed their own festive occasion, Canboulay. It marked the burning and harvest of sugar cane, during Canboulay mimicry of the French was a vital part of the event. Carnival has evolved overtime from a makeshift celebration to a powerful industry. Carnival fuels Trinidad & Tobago, it acts as a yearly cathartic act, something to look forward to in the year ahead. And a must-experience memory for more than 500,000 visitors a year. Beads, bikinis, feathers rule Carnival Tuesday. And should you be interested a taste of Old Mas awaits you J’ouvert morning where jab jabs, blue devils, midnight robbers, and dame Lorraine come out to play. There are competitions of Band of the Year, King & Queen of Carnival. The most important is the imagined competition is amongst masqueraders. Where they compete to see who is having the better time. It truly is a party like no other. Bacchanal in every sense of the word. The fever overtakes all those in costume – and for T & T Carnival it’s better to be in costume – and spreads to the street clothed spectators. It is the “mother of all West Indian carnivals”!