Antigua Carnival 2026 officially gets underway today with the Opening Parade and T-Shirt Mas, bringing thousands of revellers, performers and spectators onto the streets of St. John’s from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The opening ceremony will take place on Parliament Drive (Old House of Culture), where floats, steel bands, cultural characters and contestants will assemble before the parade begins.
The T-Shirt Mas parade starts on Old Parham Road near T.N. Kirnon School and follows a route along Old Parham Road, Simon Bolivar Drive, Factory Road, Parliament Drive, Queen Elizabeth Highway, Independence Avenue, Redcliffe Street, Thames Street, High Street before returning to Old Parham Road.
Organisers are encouraging patrons to arrive early, choose viewing spots along the route and prepare for traffic diversions throughout the afternoon and evening.
Festival officials are also inviting revellers to share their Carnival experience by tagging Antigua Carnival in their photos and videos on social media for a chance to win VIP tickets to Melting Pot and I Am Woman.
The 2026 festival is being celebrated under the theme “Feel the Rhythm.”
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Are we going to see Gaston Browne and company in that Tee Shirt Mas,today?
Not really feeling the vibes this year, too much shit happening and here come po,ice talking tough like they can prevent anything. For one you gonna need the entire police force assign to the city itself and don’t even talk about if cruise ship in Port, then with the city jam with police, the countryside is left wide open and don’t even bother to call 911 cause the Big guys them in khaki suit will be cruising in all the air conditioner vehicles. Panorama might see me, although I was hoping for at least one new steelband coming from the countryside or even Barbuda on the line up. Do they still sell horns and trombone in the music store? cause it seems like all you need now is a rhythm box and a key board with C,F,G and a minor chord and you set. Every tune this year can be performed by the same rhythm and no accompaniment.Tian Winter might be the only artiste that’s pushing international. I think Fabulous Antiguans was the last big band to leave the scene and that was it, we even use to have a brass band competition back then, how much our music has declined.
Every year now for our carnival to be successful we have to bring in all these TnT artists to perform and headline our shows, but come Trinidad carnival not one of our artist is good or popular enough to get on their stage, ain’t that a bitch. I wonder if Barbados have all these TnT artist on stage for Crop Over.