Trinidad Carnival Budget Breakdown (2020)

To be quite honest, at this point I will just keep repeating what I said in my ‘So You Want to Go to Cropover Eh?‘ post;

Carnival is not for the weak.

Carnival is not for the broke.

Carnival will have you spent both physically and monetarily.

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It is finally time for me to fulfill a bucket list dream of mine – attending Carnival in Trinidad. If I thought attending Cropover was expensive then I sure as hell was going into some wild numbers for Trinidad.

Many of my friends had attended Trinidad Carnival and had given me the heads up about how hard it is to find a place to stay, how fete tickets (can) be expensive and that I’ll probably be doing a whole lot of extra shifts to pay for all of it.

They were right – this shit costs a whole fucking lot.

I’m not even going at the crazy pace I went for Cropover where I was doing 2-3 fetes in a day sometimes, my fete list is pretty minimal. Yet still, here we are, I’m spending an abhorrent amount of money in one week (Feb 19th-26th) in one country.

Hopefully, this will all be worth it in the end since this is THE Carnival in the West Indies and I’ve been wanting to go for a very long time.

Here we go – note, I will show you how much things are in USD and converted into CAD so you can cry with me at our pitiful exchange rate. Also, the totals are inclusive of the online fees associated with everything purchased. 

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Flight to Trinidad = $672.26 CAD (roundtrip, direct)

Accommodations in Private Home: $2520.00 USD / 4 people = $630.00 USD per person ($840.00 CAD)

Backline Costume from Tribe: $980.00 USD ($1203.42 CAD)

Monday Wear from Dee Designs: $130.00 CAD

Parties:

1) Thursday: Soca or Die = $45.10 USD ($60.10 CAD)

2) Friday: Silent Morning = $140.00 USD ($185.00 CAD)

3) Saturday: Pandemonium 2 = $64.20 USD ($86.85 CAD)

4) Saturday: Soca Brainwash = $180.34 USD ($244.75 CAD)

5) Monday: Red Ants J’Ouvert = $108.00 USD ($141.58 CAD)

**For Red Ants I am using the price that it was this year because 2020 hasn’t been released yet. Also, my best friend is buying this ticket for me yay**

Party Total: $718.28

Spending money: $500 USD ($664.00 CAD) 

** This is kind of my go-to amount for every Carnival to cover transportation, liquor, food, more liquor and incidentals. Also including things like my Carnival accessions like shoes etc. **

Total Cost of Trinidad Carnival 2020:

$4227.96 CAD

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Yes, you read that shit right. That is the total cost of my Trinidad Carnival experience. One week in Trinidad will cost about what my two weeks in UAE + Maldives did during Christmas. ONE. WEEK.

Needless to say, I am only doing this specific Carnival just once. I’m pretty sure I’ll have a super duper time with my friends and all that but I just cannot justify doing this over and over. Sending a BIG kudos to all the people I know who do this annually, God bless you and your bank account. At this point I’m not even sure I’ll ever play mas again.

All I have left is wanting to attend dutty j’ouvert in Grenada and to witness the Carnival in Rio. No more mas for me, I’m too poor for this lavish lifestyle. My total number isn’t even as crazy as some of my friends who have previously gone into the above $5000 range. Also, to all of you who have free places to stay in Trinidad – know that I am incredibly jealous of you. Yes, you.

See you all in Trinidad 🙂 

• Mirna