The schedule for Antigua’s Carnival is listed below:
Thursday 23 July – Opening Parade & Ceremony, and Junior Party Monarch
Antigua’s Carnival will kick off with the Opening Parade through the capital city with filled with culture, majorettes/cheerleaders, and floats. This is followed by the opening ceremony to declare Antigua’s Carnival officially open.
Happening subsequently after the Opening Ceremony is the Junior Party Monarch. This competition is particularly designed for the young aspiring musicians in the soca genre. The youths have the opportunity to contend in one or two segments, Groovy Soca and Jumpy Soca.
Friday 24 July – Queen of Carnival
This night will see the reintroduction of the Queen of Carnival Pageant. This Pageant showcases the talent, culture, and intelligence of the beautiful women in Antigua and Barbuda, and also creates a platform to select a representative in several other pageants, including the Jaycees Queen Show.
Saturday 25 July – T-shirt Mas
A parade through the streets of St. John’s, but the only requirement is that you must wear a
T-shirt. The T-shirt can be modified to suit your style of choice; in fact, ladies have used T-shirts to make dresses, bikinis, rompers, and the fashion list goes on. Even the men have their input in transforming their shirts into modern styles.
Sunday 26 July – Junior Carnival and State Insurance Corporation Junior Calypso Monarch
This day has been designated to highlight the youths across the nation. From the Junior Carnival Parade through the streets with children and teens fully decked in creative costumes, to the Junior Calypso Competition in the evening. The artistry of our local writers and musicians are transferred to our talented youths. This expression in calypso is creatively and competitively displayed on stage. The Junior Calypso and Party Monarch competitions are pathways for those who wish to advance in the adult arena. The youths are the future of Antigua’s Carnival.
Monday 27 – Mr & Miss Teenage Pageant
This pageant is specifically geared towards the adolescent age-group. It promotes a competitive forum for the schools in Antigua and Barbuda to showcase their best, and well-rounded performing arts students. The Mr and Miss Teenage Pageant, also creates opportunities for the competitors to become role models for their peers and younger individuals. The training that they receive assists tremendously in their educational, performance, elocutionary and social development.
Tuesday 28 – Ricardo Drue presents Drue’s Day
Just as the name suggests, Ricardo Drue, one of Antigua’s top soca artistes will host the second annual Drue’s Day Event. Although a Private Event, this is a newly added fete added to the official Carnival calendar that allows patrons to forget about everything, and focus on having a really good time. Sounds of music from all genres, as well as local and regional artistes will simply captivate your mind. Drue’s Day will give feters the ultimate Carnival experience – rum, music, dancing, friends, and fun!
Wednesday 29 – Jaycees Queen Show
A Queen Show comprising of delegates from across regional and international countries hosted by the JCI Organization.
Thursday 30 – Caribbean Melting Pot
Fully endorsed by the Caribbean Airline, LIAT, Melting Pot is a compilation of several local, regional and international artistes, from different genres, cooked up together to form the second biggest event on the Carnival lineup. Soca, Calypso, Reggae, Dancehall, Zouk and R&B generes are usually represented, with entertainers such as Movado, Aidonia, Kassav, Romaine Virgo, and Bunji Garlin, gracing the Antigua Carnival stage in the past shows.
Friday 31 – Calypso Monarch
Calypso in its various genres has been our main stay for Carnival since the inception of the art form. Our calypso music reverberates with its stinging lyrical content and varied musical rhythms. It is the heartbeat of humanity that is the undeniable reflection of our African history and cultural heritage. The long established high standards of the Calypso Monarch Competition are at the pinnacle of Antigua's Carnival. It is an intoxicating rivalry that infiltrates the very audience that it reaches.
Saturday 1 – Panorama Competition
Intense rivalry exists between the steel bands, who compete annually for the title of ‘Panorama Champion’, and over the years, this show has gained massive public interest. On this night, styled as an event for the entire family, all of the Pan groups will battle on the main stage, and arrangers will put their best work forward to captivate the crowd, and the judges, with the melodic sounds of the steel pan.
Sunday 2 –Party Monarch
Dubbed as the biggest event of the Carnival season, also known as Bacchanal (Ba-Ka-Nal) night, with crowds as large as 16,000 people, is definitely the premier event on the Carnival calendar. Party songs energize this audience, and nowhere else is this more evident than at the Party Monarch Finals. An electrifying bolt of musical energy takes over as Groovy and Jumpy performances take centre stage, and the Soca Gods and Goddesses tend to engage in either one, or two rounds of competition for the Groovy and Jumpy Monarch titles respectively.
Monday 3 – J’ouvert
Before the break of dawn from as early as 3am, revelers can be seen jumping and jamming through the streets of the capital city, St. John’s. This commemorates the emancipation of slaves when slavery was abolished in the Antigua. J’ouvert Morning brings out the ultimate party atmosphere that cannot be found anywhere else in the world but on the streets of St. John
Carnival Monday: Judging of the Troupes and Groups
In the afternoon, continuing on the act of emancipation, mas troupes and groups can be seen parading, some in costumes, and others in “Monday Wear” outfits jumping and jamming to the hit songs from Antigua and across the region.
Tuesday 4 – Carnival Tuesday: Parade of the Troupes and Groups
On the final leg of the Carnival season, all of the troupes and groups in Antigua will assemble for the spectacle of a lifetime. This colourful parade displays all of the creative, flamboyant costumes, and everything else that speaks of Antigua’s Carnival. Thousands of participants wait annually to be a part of the magnificence, and even more spectators stand on the sidelines to watch the splendour unfold.
Last Lap
What do you do when you’ve waited 365 for the Caribbean’s Greatest Summer Festival and it’s about to come to an end? Well, in Antigua, we take one “LAST jump-up” before we pack away our Carnival behaviour. Last Lap is the last event for the Carnival season, and at this point we know that Carnival is about to conclude, so it’s mandatory that we soak up the music, the fun, and the revelry because at the stroke of midnight, Carnival is officially over!
