11-12th August 2025
We made it to the marina right on time for Spicemas. This is an annual celebration in Grenada made up of weeks of fêtes, music competitions and culminating in the two days of parades on carnival Monday and Tuesday.
SOCA SOCA SOCA
Soca is the definition of Grenada in our time here so far. If I had to describe Grenada in one word it is absolutely Soca! In the lead up to the carnival, the Soca competition heats up with local artists competing for the titles of the Groovy Soca Monarch and the Power Soca Monarch. Check out this year’s winners.
Over the weeks leading up there are loads of fêtes – boat parties, themed parties, and DJ events all over the island. Although Groovy Soca is a genre here; we don’t hear a lot of it – generally its all Power Soca. The music is a pumping 145BPM plus usually, and we keep joking that there is only 10 songs in the whole island. We both know all the words to all of these haha and they are well loved songs played consistently every car with a loud speaker booming and every party we see.
For a taste of the never-ending Soca style that has been blasting all over the island – check out this playlist on YouTube. Some particular favourites mixed in constantly are Muddy “Payroll”, Jab Decisions, Jab Supremacy and Viral Again. I think if you play this playlist with the biggest subwoofer you can find on repeat for 2 weeks straight you will have a pretty good idea of what its been like here hahahha.
Spicemas Fêtes
There are Spicemas parties constantly – one of the main venues is a boat called the Esta Sea which moors right next to us; so we have had the opportunity to see LOADs of parties coming and going. It’s been a bit of a joke as the partygoers are generally looking increeeedible and we are in our filthy boat work clothes fixing and cleaning things.
The outfits are truly amazing – think fishnet onesies with bikinis underneath; or fluro yellow lycra wide leg pants with matching crop top. The more revealing the better and embrace your curves with pride!
Obviously, this only applies to women hahah – men are generally wearing smart shorts and collared and sleeved shirt or t-shirt. There are strict dress codes nearly everywhere that men need to have sleeves!
I’d love to share some pics but haven’t really been bold enough to just take photos of randoms at these events when they are looking super glam.
Panorama!
The national steel drum competition brings together bands from all across the island to compete for the best band at the National Cricket Stadium. Each band covers one of the songs entered in the Soca Monarch competition (remember everything is about soca haha). Panorama is about the number of drums, the decorations, the players, the costumes, the energy and how good the dance moves are! The conductors are equally there for entertaining the crowd.
Of course the volume is …. loud! So the recordings don’t sound too great but here is a quick snippet of a few of the bands.
On leaving the venue, we were just walking back to the street to head home; when a group of three young men started chatting to us. They were asking us if we had tried Grenadian rum, did we know Clasico?? When we said we did not they insisted on treating us to a round of Clasico… Despite how… suspicious(?) this whole encounter would seem to our normal tourist selves, the vibe was good. So we partook.
So Clasico is drunk as a shot, with a chaser of a shot of ice cold water. At 69% alcohol, it felt like breathing fire.
After treating us to this and laughing at our reactions; we offered to buy them a round and they just laughed and said no, no – ah don drink da rum! They had a good laugh, wished us well and then left. Totally unexpected and definitely won’t be something I try again!
J’ouvert – also known as Jab Jab
J’ouvert started at 4am in the morning and we got up to see the start. The tradition is to cover yourself in grease, mud or oil all over and dress up as devils. The drinks, music and dancing starts from right on 4am. Vendors line the streets selling food and and drinks and trucks full of speakers are rolling up.
The early morning start means the temperature is amazing. The crowds are drunk, excited, dancing, happy and there is a real determination to party on show.
As we walked down the street we passed groups of people showing up in black tights, leotards, black bikinis, bike pants, etc and they and their friends are tipping tubs of oil all over themselves and smearing it everywhere. Oil covers the ground and all the clothes. Ryan and I are feeling very out of place!
People run down the streets yelling and jumping, many are dragging long thick chains and have massive fake devil tongues hanging out their mouths – combined with huge devil horns in the pre-dawn it is quite a sight. Some people are dragging wagons to deliver more oil to the crowds; one man pulls a lawnmower. It is a confusing, hectic and energetic spectacle.
Here is my attempt at capturing a few moments of the event – generally it was pretty difficult to have your phone out due to the danger of getting greased!
I could never possibly do justice to the outfits, the vibe and the general chaos on show – instead – if you are really keen, watch the music videos from the playlist to get a pretty good idea of what they look like! Here’s a few pics I nicked off the internet:
We were both starving and a bit overwhelmed by the volume and intensity after a few hours so we headed back to the boat to have brekky and a break. The marina we are in is on the main drag where the festival is so we were still very much right next to the party!
We sat here with the beat absolutely pounding through the boat. The heat is sweltering and the crowds were absolutely packed onto the road outside the marina. The boat was wildly rolling around from the wake thrown by all the water taxis zooming in and out of the bay.
Each truck moves down the road at a glacial pace and is competing to have the most speakers and the loudest music. Nearing 9am and the crowd still has plenty of energy but there is definitely more walking than dancing as the number of people squeezing through in and around the trucks grows.
The volume of the music is so loud I had my headphones on to help reduce it a bit. Wish we bought ear plugs to be honest! We used an app to measure 97dB at the boat … :O
At 11am, the crowds started to thin out as everyone goes to the beach to wash off the oil, and get ready for the next party tonight!
Next Up…. Monday Night Mas & Pretty Mas
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