I know I’ve said this before, but I’m back!! And I mean it this time aha

I’m back from Miami and thought I’d give a little review of my time out there.

Flight: 2/5

Miami the city: 3/5

Fetes: 3/5

Jouvert: 4/5

Carnival: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

The city

Ok so lets start with Miami itself. That place is… different? The airport is the real life slums lol. It’s old and ugly and they move ridiculously slow to get everything done. Honestly if you can avoid flying into Miami international, do it! Hopefully FT Lauderdale airport is nicer. The rest of the city was pretty much the same as every major city. You have the nice fancy bits and the ends. Luckily we got to explore both. What I will say though, is that South Beach is very beautiful. The beach itself and Ocean Drive lined with palm trees is the Miami you see on TV. The restaurants are great (SO Shay at Wet Willies) and the people are pretty friendly.

One piece of advise if you plan to visit, have a separate cab fund set up. Travelling in that city is a myth. Public transport is pretty much non-existent, I can literally count how many times I saw a bus on one hand.

Fetes

See we had a list of fetes and events to attend, but only ended up turning up for two. Firstly Miami dudes are exactly the same as Londoners looool. Driving upandan after the motive scouting for babes and wearing football shirts in places they shouldn’t be. We went to a concert called One Fest, which was very sick. I finally got to see my all time favourite soca artist – Farmer Nappy- perform and they had a live band which made the music sound even sweeter. The execution and line-up of the concert was elite, I pray one day I’ll be able to do the same in London

 

Jouvert & Carnival

I can say with my whole chest that Miami Carnival >>>>>>> NHC. The whole set-up in terms of routes, public access, structure was great! They both take place on private grounds, and you HAVE to have a ticket to enter. This means that everyone that attends actually wants to be there to have fun rather than just having people pull up to be annoying and nosey like in London. This also means that although all of the bands had security, there was absolutely no need for masqueraders to be caged in ropes. We were free to roam as we pleased, and there were multiple check points along the route where security made sure everyone that was on the road was supposed to be there.

Judging point was a tad chaotic. I liked then fact that right before you touch the stage, security made sure only masqueraders from that band cross the stage BUT mannnnn did it take forever. They need to find a way to speed up the process and each section could definitely spent less time in front of the judges.

I think my favourite part of Miami carnival is that the party doesn’t just end once each band finishes the route. After the stage all the trucks park up and the car park turns into one massive block party. You’re free to roam around and check out other bands etc which is pretty cool.

All in all, Miami carnival was pretty lit. I would definitely return, maybe not in the near future but absolutely one day.

 

 

RiiHD x