What Can Tourists Learn From Barbados Carnival?

Carnivals are always such strange events. How is it that we come to assume that a carnival is some how representative of a nation's 'culture'. A supercharged treat for the senses that takes us to the core of local experience It's bizarre when you think about it. Take for instance, the example of the Notting Hill Carnival. Few would say that represents the UK, or even just London? Well, we learn a few happy messages from such events, and they inform culture on some vague level. We can be proud of Multiculturalism thanks to such events. And then we have the fact that these festivals typically break down the icy exterior of even the most jaded business types and their world of dusty tube seats. But that's kind of what I'm railing against. Carnivals and Parades are so far from our everyday lives that they're enjoyable, but completely unrepresentative of our lives and cultural experience? And why would we assume that carnival has anything more to do with national identity elsewhere?

This discussion is most relevant when we consider our Tropical Sky. Barbados is associated all too regularly with being laid back, when they're not partying. So, why?. This is perpetuated by the fact that their 'Crop Over' festival seems to just keep going and going.. And this all seems to be rather unfair on them, and they should be excused. Well, not for knowing how to party when the time is right. The issue is more than we've become rather dismissive of the fact that they're working incredibly hard to offer the perfect all inclusive Barbados.

All that hard work seems rather at odds with our idea of them as 'laid back'. If it's all partying, how does Crop Over even get organised? Crop Over is clearly a major logistical problem. Yes, the islanders are doubtlessly out there having fun and being rather happy whilst it all happens, but it's still work. The difficulty of the work that must be done is often proportional to the fun you and everyone else has, as anyone in tourism will tell you! And this is a phenomenon we see everywhere, from Mumbai to Maldives Holidays. In conclusion then, what should we, as tourists, be doing? I think we need to start letting the nations we visit know that we get what they've done to make it all possible. Because frankly, carnivals are awesome!