The Carnival glossary

The essentials

Playing mas

The act of participating in Carnival by joining a masquerade band: wearing a costume and taking to the road with music, dancing and thousands of fellow masqueraders. “Mas” comes from “masquerade”. When someone asks “You playing mas this year?”, this is what they mean.

Band

The organisation you register with to play mas; Showtime Carnival is a band. A band designs the costumes, runs the trucks, bars, food, security and medics, and takes its masqueraders on the road together.

Section

A costume collection within a band, with its own design and name. Take Off 2027 has nine sections, from Macaw Valiant to Pink Flamingo. You register into one section.

The tiers

Versions of a section’s costume: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond and Platinum, where available, plus a Male tier. Each tier is a different configuration of pieces and detail. Compare the photos and listed pieces on your section page, then check the current price in the store before registering.

Mas Camp

The band’s home base, where costumes are collected. Showtime’s Mas Camp is at 51 French Street, Port of Spain.

Boarding pass

Showtime’s name for your QR e-ticket. It is generated and emailed automatically once you are paid in full, and it is required, with a government-issued ID, to collect your costume.

The days

J’ouvert

Pronounced “joo-vay”, from the French “jour ouvert”, meaning daybreak. Carnival’s opening celebration, starting in the pre-dawn hours of Carnival Monday. A separate, more raw experience from the Monday and Tuesday parades: body paint, mud, powder and pure unfiltered energy as the city wakes up to soca and steelpan. J’ouvert is optional and typically booked separately from your costume band.

Monday Wear

The relaxed, casual outfit worn on Carnival Monday, separate from your full Tuesday costume. Monday is about comfort: band-branded t-shirts, shorts or bikini bottoms, sneakers. Showtime sells coordinated Monday Wear so the whole band still looks unified, just dialled down from Tuesday’s full costume energy.

The road

Shorthand for the parade route and the whole experience of being out in it. “See you on the road” means seeing you out there playing mas, and “how was the road?” means the whole day, start to finish.

Crossing the stage

The moment your section parades across the official judging and performance stage, typically at the Queen’s Park Savannah or another designated stage point, performing for the judges, cameras and crowds. The iconic, photo-defining moment of Carnival Tuesday.

The Savannah

The Queen’s Park Savannah, the large park in Port of Spain that hosts the main Carnival stage and many season events.

Ash Wednesday

The day after Carnival Tuesday. Carnival is always the Monday and Tuesday before it, which is why the dates change every year.

The season

A fete

A Carnival party. There are dozens throughout the season, separate from your costume band and from Carnival Monday and Tuesday themselves. Fetes are optional, ticketed events in the weeks leading up to Carnival. You do not need to attend any to play mas with Showtime, but many masqueraders treat them as part of the full trip.

Cooler fete

A fete where you bring your own cooler of drinks rather than buying at a bar. Showtime’s Cooler Fete, “Colors of Green”, opens the Take Off season in late October.

Soca

The music of Carnival: fast, upbeat and built for the road. The trucks play it all day, and the season’s biggest songs compete to be the Road March, the track played most at the judging points.

Wine

To wine (or “wining”) is the hip-rolling dance you will see everywhere on the road and in fetes. No lessons required; the truck will teach you.

Lime

To lime is to hang out. A lime is any relaxed gathering, from a few friends on a porch to an all-day beach session. Carnival is one long lime with a parade in the middle.

Tobago Carnival

A separate October carnival on Trinidad’s sister island. Showtime runs a Tobago Carnival weekend at the end of October, with its own J’ouvert and fetes.

Take Off

The name of Showtime’s 2027 presentation. Each year’s band has a theme; the sections are the chapters of that theme.

Ready to see it in practice? Read Monday vs Tuesday.

Questions first-timers ask