There are numerous cultural events such as "band launch" fetes running in the lead up to the street parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday.

[1] Costume (sometimes called "mas"), stick-fighting, limbo, and steelpan competitions are important components of the festival.

[10][11][12] These immigrants included French planters and 'free coloureds' (free people of mixed race),[13][11][14] as well as enslaved Africans.

Canboulay (from the French cannes brulés, meaning burnt cane)[17] The festival was characterized by drums, singing, calinda dancing, chanting, and stick-fighting.

These slaves, brought to toil on sugar plantations, were stripped of all connections to their homeland and family and not allowed to talk to each other.

[27][28][29] In 1884, the colonial government passed the Peace Preservation Act,[30] in an attempt to prevent violence breaking out during the Carnival.

The Act prohibited public carrying of torches, drumming, blowing horns, and stick-fighting (or the assembly of ten or more people with sticks).

[36][37][38] The celebration involves participants dousing themselves in oil, mud, and powder,[39][40][41] and dancing to calypso and soca music through the streets.

[42][43] This is a stark contrast to the attractive and more formal costumes that are donned later in the day on Carnival Monday and on Tuesday.