Washington DC Caribbean Carnival Parade 2011 Live Webcam Feed

The Washington DC Caribbean Style Mardi Gras Parade with costumed masqueraders representing the Caribbean, Latin America and the Diaspora will transform Georgia Avenue into a “Caribbean Bourbon Street” with the sights and sounds of the Caribbean.

This live feed is in DC for the parade:

DC Caribbean Carnival Live

Event Information:

This year’s Parade begins on Kansas at Georgia Avenue, NW and ends at Barry Place, NW across from the Howard University Campus leading to the Festival.

Caribbean Carnival is the term used for a number of events that take place in many of the Caribbean islands annually. The Caribbean's Carnivals all have several common themes all originating from Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, based on folklore, culture, religion,and tradition, not on amusement rides. Carnival tradition is based on a number of disciplines including: "Playing Mas"/Masquerade; Calypso Music and crowning a Calypso King or Monarch; Panorama (Steel Band Competition); Jouvert morning; and a number of other traditions.

Georgia Avenue is a major north-south artery in Northwest Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland. Within the District of Columbia and a short distance in Silver Spring, Maryland, Georgia Avenue is also U.S. Route 29. Both Howard University and Walter Reed Army Medical Center are located on Georgia Avenue.

Georgia Avenue begins north of Florida Avenue, which was the boundary of the Old City, and is a continuation of 7th Street. Traveling northward, the street passes Howard University and Fort Stevens.

San Francisco Carnaval 2011 Live Feed, Parade & Festival Webcam Stream

Carnaval San Francisco is an annual street parade and festival in San Francisco, California on the last weekend in May. It was founded by a large group of visionary artists brought together by percussionist Marcus Gordon, dancer Adela Chu, and costume designer Pam Minor in 1979.

This live feed is in San Francisco for the Carnaval:

SF Carnaval Live Feed

Event information:

The San Francisco Bay Area Carnaval season begins in February as the great Western hemisphere Carnaval celebrations are concluding. The four Carnaval Cities with the greatest influence and presence in the San Francisco Carnaval are Port of Spain, Trinidad; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Salvador, Brazil; and Oruro, Bolivia. The Mission District, San Francisco, California since the 1950s, has been a metro center for the many different Spanish speaking populations of Latin America and these groups will often enter a group or Carnaval contingent in the parade.

Carnaval or Mardi Gras is best seen as a spring festival celebrating the rebirth of life and thus it is a universal festival celebrated by all cultures as well as the first festival. Besides the strong American hemisphere presence in the parade there are generally Carnaval groups from the Philippines, India, China, Middle East and Africa.

As a parade, Carnaval San Francisco is most recognized for its spectacular choreographed dancers and scantily clad beautiful women. The Inner Mission District with two BART stations supports the Bay Area's highest concentration of dance studios and instructors. Many of these dance instructors have been pillars of the Carnaval parade instilling the sublime sense of uniting with the Carnaval spirit though movement and song into their students during the peak moments best experienced in the parade.

Rio de Janiero Webcam Feed Live at the Rio Carnival 2011

The Carnival in Rio de Janeiro is a world famous festival held before Lent every year. The carnival parade is filled with people and floats from various samba schools.

This live feed is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2011 Carnival:

Rio Carnival Webcam Feed

Event Information:

The purpose of carnival is for samba schools to compete with fellow rival schools; this competition is the climax of the whole carnival festival. Each school chooses a theme to try and portray in their entry. The samba schools work to build the best floats and costumes to represent their themes, and to include the best music they can from their band called the bateria. There are many parts to each school's entry including the six to eight floats and thousands of participants.

As the parade is taking place in the Sambadrome and the balls are being held in the Copacabana Palace and beach, many of the carnival participants are at other locations. Street festivals are very common during carnival and are highly populated by the locals. Elegance and extravagance are usually left behind, but music and dancing are still extremely common. Anyone is allowed to participate in the street festivals. Bandas and bondos are very familiar with the street carnival especially because it takes nothing to join in on the fun except to jump in. One of the most well known bandas of Rio is Banda de Ipanema. Banda de Ipanema was first created in 1965 and is known as Rio’s most irreverent street band. The samba is the main dance of Rio Carnival but it is not performed in silence. Music is another major aspect of all parts of carnival. As stated by Samba City, “Samba Carnival Instruments are an important part of Brazil and the Rio de Janeiro Carnevale, sending out the irresistible beats and rhythms making the crowd explode in a colourful dance revolution.