Atlanta Caribbean Carnival

Atlanta Caribbean Carnival is the largest Caribbean events that occur in Atlanta yearly. Carnival is a vibrant expression of Caribbean culture, identity, and pride. Carnival participants or masqueraders wear costumes that range from t-shirts showcasing a group logo to elaborate costumes decorated with sequins and feathers to very large masterfully built costumes that often require wheels or harnesses to help the masquerader carry and navigate through the streets. Masqueraders dance on the streets along the carnival route to the sounds of steel pan or/and soca and calypso played by a band or a DJ—this is commonly called “playing mas.” By bringing together different Caribbean groups to celebrate a shared identity and culture, carnival plays an important role in the development of a pan-Caribbean consciousness among Afro-Caribbean immigrants (Kasinitz 1992; Hintzen 2001). As the diaspora has grown and spread out across the world, carnival has become a shared cultural identity, as well as a space for Afro-Caribbeans to publically showcase their ethnicity (Kasinitz 1992).

The Atlanta Caribbean Carnival was the earliest sign of Afro-Caribbean immigrants’ presence in Atlanta. By the time I found out about it in 2008, the carnival was celebrating its 20^th year. To my surprise my father, who regularly attended the annual Caribbean carnivals in Boston, New York, and Toronto (and who I frequently used as my personal Caribbean Wikipedia), had known about Atlanta’s carnival for years, and several of his friends regularly traveled to the Atlanta carnival as part of their yearly carnival circuit.

The first carnival took place in 1988, when the Caribbean population was relatively small (1990 Census estimated the West Indian population in Atlanta was around 8,000). At the time, Atlanta was predominantly African American and white and had not yet attracted large numbers ethnic groups and before then had not held any ethnic festivals. Atlanta Peach Caribbean Carnival, Incorporated was formed in 1987 to put on the “Atlanta Peach Caribbean Carnival—A Folklife Festival” in effort to promote Caribbean heritage, culture, and history in Atlanta. Wanting to become part of the carnival circuit that many Caribbean people (like my father) traveled to annually, the planning committee chose Memorial Weekend for the carnival as to not conflict with Caribbean carnivals in other US cities. The effort to develop the first Atlanta Caribbean Carnival was a collaborative effort among local residents (including non-Caribbean residents) and representatives from the various Caribbean groups in the area. The organizers also contacted carnival organizers in other US cities, such as New York and Miami, and asked them to send their carnival bands down to play for the Atlanta Caribbean Carnival.

In its first year, the organizers made great efforts to showcase Caribbean culture larger Atlanta community. As a precursor to Carnival, the carnival organizers put a steel pan band and a group of people in carnival costumes in the city’s annual Fourth of July Parade. They also organized cricket and soccer sports tournaments to familiarize Atlanta residents with the major sports played in the Caribbean and a Taste of Caribbean Cuisine where people could sample Caribbean fare.

When I attended the carnival for the first time in 2009, I got my first indication of the diversity of Caribbean culture and community in Atlanta. I saw flags from different countries, including St. Kitts & Nevis, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Vincent, Dominica, Antigua & Barbuda, Trinidad & Tobago, US Virgin Islands, Grenada, Belize, St. Lucia, and Haiti. The Caribbean community is not monolithic. Although I refer to Afro-Caribbeans in Atlanta as “the (Atlanta) Caribbean community,” “the community” is made up of different Caribbean communities, based on generation, home nations, language, class, and the places that they moved from (e.g. those who moved from New York versus those who moved from Miami). I found that some people travel to Atlanta to experience its carnival. Based on my lack of prior knowledge of it, I assumed that most of those attending the Atlanta Carnival were residents of metro Atlanta. I didn’t expect anybody, except for the invited artists, to travel to Atlanta for its carnival, like they do to Boston, Washington, D.C., Toronto, and, of course, New York for their carnivals. But, my friend Nevis and I both ran into people that we knew that traveled from cities in the Northeast to Atlanta to attend the carnival for the first time. The carnival is increasingly establishing Atlanta as center of Caribbean life in the US, similar to the way the New York Caribbean Carnival established New York City as a major cultural center for the Caribbean diaspora.