Hear the folks shout "Dey comin'", feel the air start reverberating with the sounds of cowbells, goombays, tom-toms and dancing feet, and before you know it, you'll be smiling and swaying and carrying on like you've been coming to Junkanoo all your life.
Come and visit us around the middle of summer, at Christmas and New Year, and that's just the way it is out here - party time! With colorful local crafts on show, all kinds of traditional tasty food being prepared and dished out for you to try, and all the while bands playing, performers performing, the different groups rushing out and around the streets and the show going on and on and on. Not just all night, but right through the night. And each time the event gets a whole lot bigger and better.
Which is just fine by me. Performing at Junkanoo's been something I've been doing for as long as I can remember. Way before I started running my own group. Back then it was really the music I was into and it was just the June, December and January parades I'd take part in, where the groups are all competing to win prizes and there's even a handbook of rules that everyone's got to follow.
These days, seems like Junkanoo's all I do! I get to arrange and produce the music, work out and rehearse the dances and design and build the costumes and we're invited to perform at special events all through the year. And you wouldn't believe the stories I could tell you.
Course, for those who might be wondering why we call what we do 'Junkanoo' at all, there's so many different explanations it's mighty tricky knowing where to start. So I'll tell it to you like I heard it first-off myself, which is that the term Junkanoo is believed to have come from a 17th century street festival celebrated by West African slaves to commemorate a local hero, John Canoe.
Truth is, whatever got us started, after almost 500 years practise, it's no wonder we're still throwing the best parties in the Caribbean.
Christian Justilien, CLICO Colours dance troupe leader - Abaco
