A RIOT OF COLOUR AND SOUND ......

The spectacle begins at three in the afternoon ............... No, that's not true .... It never really ended last night ..... People have just gone home to change into new costumes and put on new colours .............. The drums and the troupes finally leave the streets of FORT de FRANCE in MARTINIQUE at about six in the morning ......... And then in between the store keepers re-open and everyone is out and about in full colour ................ Words alone will not do it justice, and the few photos below barely touch the surface of an outburst of pagentry and creative splendour, spiced up with humour, caricatures mocking SARKOSY the French President, and a great many males who seem determined to take this sanctioned opportunity to cross-dress ..................... But our favourite was the group from a potter's hamlet in MARTINIQUE who did still-motion performances every few yards .... Check out the videos at the end ............ Oh, and you need to know that the Carnival officially starts tomorrow ...............



You should double-click on these black and silver costumes and others to see the detail ...... Incredible works of art and each one unique ...... They say it may take a full year to get next year's costume ready ...........



That stylish woman in the orange dress is the Chief Judge, whose patience must be incredible, for she sat through hours of such variation that we reeled from the overload of colour, style, manouvers and sound ............ Impossible to count the number of drums that must be on this island .............. How do you judge such variation? ...... How do you even compare them? ............



Men covered in black mollasses, RIO de JANERO style Mardi gras costumes in a Brazilian troupe, men doing a little cross-dressing and then these is this characterization, which is really not too hard to figure out ...."Something about the white man's been on my back for far too long ..." ...... Not that the women or the kids miss out ..............



Could have lost the "Queen' quite easily in that colourful crowd, especially when there is so much else to see, like this group representing 'Citizens for clean energy' wearing little solar panels on their heads ........ Sure beats blowing up power stations to get someone's attention .......



Did you know you could make an entire costume from dried banana leaves and a couple of cans of spray-paint ............. The varieties of materials used in the costumes was incredible ........... Two days from now we will see plenty of the "Rouge Diablo" the red devils like the ones below ....



We are doing our part for "Carnivale" by putting up the flags on ARITA, but what a poor show compared with the 'Banana man' with wig and high heels who casually strolls past the crowd .......... Then again two more days and those bananas are bound to hang as limp as our flags when the wind drops .......

Carnival officially starts tomorrow with the "BURLESQUE" parade, to be followed by two more days of costume parades, huge bands and a bunch of libacious-rum-induced celebration .......... Hope you can handle the pace .....