“I’m from Trinidad,” the exotic-looking girl said.
Now, I thought I was fairly worldly, but I had to ask, “um, where is Trinidad?" Which probably didn’t really impress her all that much.
Turned out Trinidad is a very cool island at the southern end of the Caribbean, one-half of the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Part of the Commonwealth, with a strong British influence, it’s one of the largest Caribbean islands, with about a million and a half people. They are called “Trinis.”
I was fortunate enough to date the exotic-looking girl for some years and visited Trinidad several times, including for its famous Carnival. I’m here to tell you that even though it’s a small place, everything is big in Trinidad.
The People
My girlfriend was tall, about 5’10”, from a place where women average 5’7 or more, and the men seem to all be at least 6’. Folks in Trinidad (and also Jamaica, with which it shares many roots) are tall.
This is likely due to Trinidad’s mixed genetics. The population identifies as 40% Black and 40% Southeast Asia Indian, though there is a lot of mixing. The other 10% are a very diverse set of English, French, Spanish, Americans, Chinese, Portuguese, Syrian and Lebanese, and just about every other group that crossed the British Empire, trade routes, and more. And they are all mixed in, too, repeatedly. As I recall, the exotic-looking girl is 1/16th Chinese.
The result is real genetic diversity in a fairly small population, such that some families might have both dark and light-skinned children from the same parents. Or a child might have blue eyes and dark skin. And the people are tall, which is supported by research that genetic mixing really does result in taller people.
The Carnival
You might have been to New Orleans’ Mardi Gras, which celebrates the days before Lent. It’s a big fun party, but nothing compared to Carnival in Trinidad. This island of a million people gets an extra million visitors who come just for the party. That’s a million+ person party, in a few dozen city blocks, for a week. Big.
Unlike the famous Brazilian Carnival, which people watch as bystanders, Trinidad’s Carnival is very much participatory. People are expected to join a band, get a costume, and dance the routes. There are few observers or bystanders, though you can try, but expect to be pulled into the crowd to dance. It’s a big party, for and by everyone.
The Bands
The core costume and dancing unit of Carnival is the “band.” Carnival bands often revolve around the famous steel pan (a cool musical instrument; go check it out on Youtube), though some bands focus more on the costumes than music.
There are dozens of bands, many of which have been around for generations, ranging from small, 100-person groups to older, more traditional 8,000-person bands. These are further broken down into 500-1,000-person marching sections — in Trinidad, that’s perhaps just you and your friends.
Carnival consists of a million people dancing and partying in the streets 24/7 for several days in the relatively small capital city of Port-of-Spain, with beer, coconuts, and pretty girls everywhere. The Trinis say it’s “known as the biggest street party on Earth” which is probably true. It’s big.
And you should go at least once.
The Puppets
An interesting part of Trinidadian Carnival are “puppets." Now, when I think of puppets, I think of a small wooden person you control with strings, or maybe small sticks.
So, while puppets are perhaps defined as a “stick figure controlled by a human,” nowhere is it written that puppets must be smaller than the person controlling them. In Trinidad, the Carnival puppet is bigger than the person.
Much bigger.
In fact, Trinidadian puppets are enormous. Often 30-40 feet tall.
“Driven” by men or women, puppets take serious engineering, strength, and skill to manage, especially while dancing them to the beat across a large stage in gusty winds. Here’s a great video showing the famous Peter Minshall puppet Tantan and its escort Saga Boy:
The King & Queen Costumes
While some folks play with the enormous puppets, others compete in their king and queen costumes. Think of a huge monster peacock carried on a woman’s shoulders. These costumes can be 20+ feet across and 20 feet tall. There are even rules on how many wheels are allowed to help balance the costume, especially in the wind (as it’s like having a big sail on your back).
Think of that — costumes so huge they require wheels! They can weigh up to 200 pounds and the latest ones often include cool technology, like fireworks, LEDs, and more.
These costumes are beautiful. Hand-made with feathers, colorful tapestries, and more, Carnival costumes are probably the largest and prettiest in the world. And since lots of bands have a queen, there are dozens of these to marvel at each year.
You can see some of these costumes in the 2020 Highlight Video. Be sure to look for the actual person carrying all that and consider the scale of the costume vs. bystanders.
Huge, and pretty.
The Olympics
Given all these huge parties, costumes, bands, and the organization required, it’s probably no surprise that Trinidadians were invited to design costumes for the opening and closing ceremonies of both the Atlanta and Barcelona summer Olympic Games in the 1990s.
Few folks have the skills to build and manage a thousand people — and their costumes — in a large stadium, while bringing it all together with style in front of the world.
The DJs
Trinidad runs on music. And while they have indigenous songwriters for Calypso and Soca, most of the real Carnival music action is via the DJs (and steel pan). These disc-jockeys are the mainstay of both Carnival and the year-round parties on the island.
DJs the world over are often much the same, with records, CDs — and now digital music and DJ decks — providing tunes that blast out over speakers to hordes of dancing party-goers.
The Trinidad difference is, first, that these parties are mostly outside, where great Caribbean weather can be enjoyed year-round in the tropics. This means larger events are not in bars or clubs with in-house sound systems.
Second, consider the size of a DJ setup for a big outside party or Carnival march. The minimum size seems to be an 18-wheeler trailer, with a wall of speakers 6-8 feet tall surrounding the trailer — that’s 50-75-plus feet of speakers. That’s for a DJ at a party at your house (though non-mobile parties usually have a more traditional stage and speaker towers, but you get the idea of size).
During Carnival, 150-200 of these trucks provide the music for the Road March, when each band section of a few thousand people dance through the streets. And as they line up for the stage on the last afternoon, it’s impressive to see over a hundred 18-wheelers lined up for many city blocks, all blasting tunes.
The Parties
Finally, Trinidadian parties are large. After all, it’s not an actual party unless there are perhaps a thousand people. Several thousand can be a modest get-together, larger if you’re having a real blow-out. Intimate, it’s not, but intimate, it can be, as lots of lots of folks know each other in an island nation.
That’s it. Trinidad is a very interesting and colorful place, with enormous spirit and gifts of music, dance, and life. Things are big, but it’s a small island you should visit sometime.
Resources:
16 Reasons why you should NEVER travel to Trinidad & Tobago - Very cute travel guide to the great things in Trinidad.