Junkanoo

What: Feel the Beat – Junkanoo is the biggest street parade across the Caribbean, with thou­sands of Bahami­ans out­fit­ting them­selves in colour­ful, ener­getic and funky hand­made cos­tumes to dance through the streets of Nas­sau, accom­pa­nied by brass bands and tra­di­tion­al African music, to cel­e­brate the unique cul­ture, dance and music of the par­adise island.

Dat­ing back hun­dreds of years, the ori­gins and name of Junkanoo are hot­ly con­test­ed – as is the event itself with four main groups or ‘shacks’ com­pet­ing to pro­duce the best per­for­mance, cos­tume and dance. Along­side the parade, streets stalls offer­ing fin­ger foods and tra­di­tion­al island snacks line the parade, which, com­bined with the rhyth­mic music from the parade itself which lasts all through the night to sun­rise, helps to make Junkanoo not only the glob­al des­ti­na­tion for box­ing day but also helps Nas­sau live up to its rep­u­ta­tion as the islands of song.

When: There are two Junkanoo events at the end of the year, with the live­li­er fes­ti­val tak­ing place on the 26^th of Decem­ber and a cel­e­bra­tion to mark the new year tak­ing place on the 1^st of Jan­u­ary.

Where: The liveli­est and jazz­i­est expe­ri­ence for Junkanoo is in the Bahamas cap­i­tal Nas­sau, where the main parts of the parade take place on Bay and Shirley Streets.

Dura­tion:  The fes­ti­val offi­cial starts between mid­night and 1am – although it typ­i­cal­ly kicks off lat­er than that and lasts will at least sun­rise, nor­mal­ly fin­ish­ing around 9–10am the morn­ing.

Tick­ets: There are two main options to wit­ness Junkanoo, with the main one being join­ing the line of spec­ta­tors along the main streets – how­ev­er this comes with the added risk of need­ing to keep an eye on your belong­ings but does give the option to decide how much of the fes­ti­val you view and the option to leave at your own sched­ule.

For a more relaxed expe­ri­ence and with a guar­an­tee of seats and wit­ness­ing the whole of Junkanoo, you can buy tick­ets for restau­rants and bars with van­tage points over main street, with Athena Cafe  and the Bahama Jam­mers bar being two well known options. Addi­tion­al­ly fur­ther seat­ing options include grand­stands along the parade route which are avail­able at (https://www.bahamas.com/junkanoo) and over the phone, although they sell out quick­ly.

Need to Know: Unfor­tu­nate­ly, seri­ous vio­lent crime is extreme­ly com­mon in Nas­sau so its high­ly advised to take only what you need when watch­ing the parade and if pos­si­ble join an organ­ised tour or take a spot at one of the high tier restau­rants to relax and enjoy the Junkanoo parade.

It should also be not­ed that both Junkanoo events take place around Christ­mas and New Year, so it’s advised to book flights and accom­mo­da­tion well in advance to ensure avail­abil­i­ty and avoid price hikes.

More Infor­ma­tion: The full his­to­ry of Junkanoo, along with more infor­ma­tion about the parade and par­tic­i­pants with­in it and the pos­si­ble pur­chase of tick­ets is all at the offi­cial Junkanoo web­site (https://www.bahamas.com/junkanoo).