Carnival in St. Croix: Colorful Celebrations and Island Culture

Posted on January 4, 2025November 6, 2025 by jim

Most people are familiar with Carnival in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, but few know that there is also Carnival in St Croix!
Instead of falling just before Lent in February or March like most Carnival celebrations, in the Caribbean it varies by location and tradition.
Carnival in St Croix starts in December with the Crucian Christmas Fest and ends the first week of January.
We didn’t know this until we arrived here, but we decided to head over to Frederiksted to see the parade and revelry.
Island Time means that an 11am start really means kinda starting at 1pm, and we arrived at 1030 to get a good seat along the parade route.
That’s a long time to sit and wait, but it’s still entertaining watching the locals and tourists having a good time. Plus once you’ve invested a couple hours, you have to stick it out for the show.
The parade starts with the governor and several other politicians, and they spend sooooo much time baby-shaking and hand-kissing that they really bog down the entire parade.
Parade participants would end up in one spot for 5-10 minutes before moving along, and they were all sweating profusely in the sun.
Too many cars hauling teen queens with music cranked up to 11, too slow of a pace, and really pretty haphazard overall.
The Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra was a highlight for us, with teenagers cranking on the steel drums so hard that their double-decker trailer was bouncing on its tires.
The Moko Jumbies (kids on stilts) were pretty cool, and there were some pretty amazing costumes, but you can completely skip Carnival in St Croix unless you’re already here with nothing else to do.
There’s no body shame among the islanders, and there’s a LOT of skin in the videos – don’t watch if you’re easily offended!