Costumes of the Carnival
Whether it’s athletic women in little more than bikinis and feathers, or a towering puppetry structure manpowered by four people, the Mas bands and their costumes are an essential part of Carnival.
The procession starts on Sunday with the children’s parade and culminates on the Monday afternoon, as the winners of ‘Best Mas on the Road’ are announced at the judging point on Westbourne Grove.
Competition is fierce and Notting Hill Carnival is the pinnacle event of the year for hundreds of participants, who spend months working on complex costumes to accompany music and dance on the day. The range of experience on show is diverse, ranging from international teams who perform throughout the year, right the way to small, community groups.
How it works is that bands must have at least 30 people in costume and be accompanied by a sound system or steel pan, playing predominately Soca/Calypso music. The team will also set themselves a theme around which they construct their performance; these can focus on anything, though traditionally they were an opportunity to highlight social or political issues.
Carnival in Trinidad originated at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Centuries, during the French and British colonial era.
To begin with it was the colonials who initiated festivities, however during the years following emancipation Africans took the opportunity to embrace the event, using it as a tool to celebrate their freedom and chastise officialdom.
Africans would dress up as characters and perform a ‘masquerade’, often in reference to days of slavery and white aristocracy, such as Dame Lorraine, a costume mimicking the pomp and attire of the French aristocracy, and Moko Jumbie, a traditional masquerade performed on 10-12ft stilts.
Today Mas has grown to become an international phenomenon, with costumes becoming more elaborate and sophisticated year on year. In 2006 two million people converged on the streets of Notting Hill to watch what has become the biggest Mas in Europe, second only in the world to Rio.
Click here to read more about the History of the Notting Hill Carnival
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