Boston Caribbean Carnival

Boston’s Trinidad-style Carnival could return to a place where its growth potential will increase. This means larger bands, more colorful sections and no delays or large breaks in the parade. This will also encourage more visitors to Boston, additional revenue to businesses in the community and an increase in hotel stays.

Feathers, sequins and shimmering costumes filled Franklin Park Saturday afternoon as Boston residents gathered for the annual Caribbean Carnival.

In an ordinary year, six designers would have given Akeshia Lewis costumes for sections in Misfit Carnival’s presentation. But there hasn’t been a normal year since 2019. Last year, there was no Caribbean Carnival.

Soaring headdresses adorned with feathers, brightly colored, bejeweled bikinis and enough bass to get the stiffest hips moving, even after gorging on fried chicken wings; these were just some of the scenes from the 45th annual Caribbean Carnival that danced its way through the streets of Roxbury last Saturday.

With scarcely a month before Caribbean Carnival, members of the Soca & Associates masquerade band are busily attending to the construction of their costumes. Master costume builder Ronald “Barney” Blaize is working on the largest — a 30-foot high by 20-foot wide costume for the Soca & Associates queen.