Every March, the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana throws the biggest pan-Latin/Caribbean bash in the country on Southwest 8th Street, the main street of Miami’s Cuban community, called “Calle Ocho” in Spanish because of the missing ordinal abbreviation (i.e. “th”) on the street signs. With a few million party people packing the street for almost […]
Party on 8th Street: Calle Ocho in Miami Read More
Vai-Vai in São Paulo and Beija-Flor de Nilópolis in Rio Incidentally, I’ve been with Vai-Vai since jump: And the party’s still not over…the champions’ parade is tonight! Please don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @FlyBrother, and “like” me on Facebook! You can subscribe, too!
Carnival 2011: And the Winners Are… Read More
Through all the color and pageantry of seven samba schools competing for the top prize on the first night of São Paulo’s Sambadrome competition, one dark and controversial issue reared its head in the most beautiful and touching ways. The Acadêmicos do Tucuruvi samba school (less a school in the traditional sense than a Carnival
“Reconheço Meu Valor” Read More
Burl Ives got it wrong; the most wonderful time of the year, in much of the world, is upon us – Carnival. For four, five, six, even seven days leading up to Ash Wednesday, revelers in the Catholic world drop inhibitions and taboos in a frenzied, culturally-mixed-and-matched attempt to “get it all in” before having
Notting Hill Carnival, London’s largest celebration, started 45 years ago among the city’s burgeoning Afro-Caribbean community. Peaking at 2 million attendees, the party gets started on the last Sunday of August with parades and truck-sized sound systems scattered throughout the Notting Hill neighborhood and centered on Portobello Road (of flea market and Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Carnaval de Barranquilla, February 2009 One of the traditions of Carnival here in Colombia is the throwing of corn starch and water on unsuspecting revelers. This is the first time in three years that someone has succeeded in tagging me. Leave it to three intrepid Colombianas down from New Jersey…they had been plotting from the
Colombia Mía: Maizena y Agua Read More
So you want to get in on the Carnival action but don’t know where to start? Find out when. First, you need to get the dates cornered before embarking on any pre-Lenten debauchery. True Carnivals – be they in Brazil, Italy, Spain, the Caribbean, or any other Catholic-leaning society – occur simultaneously, which means ix-nay
How to Get to Carnival Read More
Part 3 of a 3-part series on lesser-known, but no-less-hot, Carnival celebrations. On the tiny Caribbean island of Trinidad, four-hundred years of recorded history under various European flags and immigration from the four corners of the globe have shaped and molded the look and feel of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival into one of the most
Part 2 of a 3-part series on lesser-known, but no-less-hot, Carnival celebrations. Growing every year by word of mouth, the Carnaval de Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast of Colombia is more an expression of folklore and regional culture than random debauchery and merriment. In 2003, the festival was named a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible
En Barranquilla Se Baila Así Read More
Part 1 of a 3-part series on lesser-known, but no-less-hot, Carnival celebrations. While most of the world looks to its more famous neighbor to the south as the epitome of pre-Lenten debauchery, Brazil’s first capital, Salvador da Bahia, is truly where you find Brazilian Carnival. Or, rather, Carnival for Brazilians. You don’t “see” Carnival in
Where the Brazilians Go for Carnival Read More
