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Festival Preview: Junkanoo Festival, The Bahamas!
Other | Friday 14th November 2014 | Annalisa
Every December The Bahamas throws a huge cultural extravaganza known as Junkanoo that is heralded as being one of the most entertaining street carnivals in the world. The festival runs on Boxing Day and is a well established story in Bahamian history described as the soul of all Bahamians.. The parade derives from slavery in the 16th and 17th century. Legend has it slaves were given three days off at Christmas in which they paraded the streets of Nassau in colourful masks, travelling from house to house, often on stilts, spreading positive vibes and expressing their sense of freedom.
Similar to other world-famous street festivals such as London's Notting Hill or Rio’s Carnival, Junkanoo is awash with elaborate outfits woven in beautiful bright threads along with traditional music and dance. The imagination that goes into these outfits is an ode to the hard graft of the designers and seamstress’ behind the scenes who put in months of work to compete in the islands most celebrated event of the calendar. Creativity at the heart, the cloths have always been a feat of innovation and inspiration. Traditional outfits made by slaves were made out of anything they could find ranging from cardboard and newspaper to sponges found at the bottom of the sea.
Troupes of up to 1,000 line the street busy rehearsing their dazzling routines. Dancers will have perfected their hypnotic rhythms to be performed day and night on a variety of goatskin drums, cowbells, whistles and horns. The parade even has its own shuffle. Far from the deep house shuffle adopted by sweet boys in this country, the Bahamian dance routine is a genuinely synchronised performance that makes use of the entire road. So scrap your gap yah plans to Thailand, cancel your tiger grooming trip to Kenya and get yourself down to Nassau for a proper party!
