In came the New Year, in the blink of an eye or the pop of a bottle, 2016 was gone. Cheers to life, we had airily planned out 2017, this year would be one of adventures and new experiences. A big one being Jamaica’s Carnival Road March. As a novice, I stalked as many social media pages as I deemed necessary to get the inside Intel on Carnival know-how. I linked the two people I knew wouldn’t laugh me to scorn, and learnt some key tips and tricks. Now came January, and it was band/costume launch galore, for the first time, Jamaica was having four different Carnivals or as a Trinidadian would put it, four different Bands. For many years one Band had control of our Carnival, Bacchanal Jamaica, where that band had different costume sections which marched on di road. For Jamaica’s 2017 Carnival the different bands are Bacchanal Jamaica, Xodus Carnival, Xaymaca International, and Jamaica Carnival.

I didn’t register ’til near the deadline for my band, January 31st, because I was spending an extravagant amount of money, I decided to wait until all the bands had their costume launches, then I would make my final decision. During the tedious wait I emailed a bunch of makeup artists, and found out their prices, as well as searched for boots online. Bacchanal Jamaica had their costume launch on January 7th with a wait till January 12th for the official website to be ready. Xodus Carnival had their launch on December 14th followed by the costumes and prices up on Instagram from January 11th but their website launched on January 12th. Xaymaca International had their costume launch on January 21st and their website was up by the 23rd. Jamaica Carnival had their costume launch on January 27th.

Mi nah go lie, this was a hard decision to make but the prices easily narrowed down my choices. I liked the Queen of Hearts costume from Xodus Carnival, and Provcateur from Xaymaca International. I liked quite a few from Bacchanal Jamaica, namely Desire by Xult, Auralight, Pixie Dust, and my fave was Frenchmen Shooting Star. I had made up my mind, that the price, the colours, the feathers were right, I wanted Shooting Star. So on Saturday I went on Bacchanal Jamaica’s website to make my first deposit, but to my despair, the backline costumes were sold out. I tossed and turned over it that night, and on Sunday, I decided to take Pixie Dust, it was cute and on my list of likes. That is how I chose Bacchanal Jamaica’s Pixie Dust Costume, the Backline section.

This is the first time I’ll be jumping in the Carnival Road March, and I’m really excited. We- my best friend and I- decided this year would finally be there year we do it because it falls on her birthday, so we figured it was meant to be. I decided to take you all on my experience, not only of the road march but of Carnival/Bacchanal season in Jamaica, I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

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