Jamaica Carnival Videos
Jamaica Carnival brings soca to Kingston in the weeks after Easter.
Jamaica Carnival is a spring season, running mostly in the weeks after Easter and built around Kingston. Fetes and cooler parties fill the calendar before road day, when the costumed bands take the road to soca and dancehall side by side. Our Jamaica coverage lives here.
Jamaica · Jamaica
When is Jamaica Carnival 2027?
Jamaica 2027 runs 4 April 2027.
- Parade days
- 4 April 2027
- Season
- 2027
Dates confirmed against the official schedule. Official schedule
Jamaica Carnival information
Verified public information about this carnival, organised by MasLife World TV. Last verified September 5, 2026.
What Jamaica Carnival is
Jamaica Carnival is Kingston's soca and mas season, and unlike most Caribbean carnivals it does not run before Lent — it takes place after Easter, in the spring, which is why it has become the season many international masqueraders travel to between Trinidad in February and the summer carnivals. The centrepiece is Road March, the costumed parade through Kingston, when bands cross the city behind music trucks in full costume. Around it sits a week of concerts, breakfast parties, boat rides, cooler fetes and all-inclusive events, with additional activity in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay in the days before the parade. Bacchanal Jamaica is the longest-running promoter of the season and publishes the band, costume and event calendar each year; other promoters and bands stage their own parades and events across the same weeks. Musically Jamaica Carnival is a meeting point: soca from the eastern Caribbean alongside dancehall, and in recent years a strong Jamaican soca presence of its own. For anyone searching "Jamaica Carnival dates", "Kingston Road March" or "Bacchanal Jamaica", this is that festival — an island famous for reggae running a full carnival season of its own.
Source: visitjamaica.comWhen it happens
Jamaica 2027 runs 4 April 2027. Jamaica Carnival is not a pre-Lenten carnival. It is held after Easter, in the spring, with Road March as the final Sunday of the season. The next Road March confirmed by the Jamaica Tourist Board is 4 April 2027.
Source: visitjamaica.comParade
Road March is the costumed parade of the bands through Kingston, and it is the day the season is built around. Registered bands cross the city behind music trucks in sections, with each band publishing its own costume packages, meeting point and route. The Jamaica Tourist Board lists the confirmed Road March date each year, and Bacchanal Jamaica publishes routes and band details for the events it runs.
Source: visitjamaica.comJ'ouvert / Jouvay
Jamaica Carnival's pre-parade street events fill the days before Road March, with paint, powder and early-morning jams staged by individual promoters rather than one single national J'ouvert. Because these events are promoter-run, times, venues and packages change year to year, so the event listings published by Bacchanal Jamaica and other promoters are the reliable source for any given season.
Source: bacchanaljamaica.comFêtes and festival week
The week before Road March is the busiest part of the season: concerts, dance sessions, breakfast parties, boat rides, cooler fetes and all-inclusive events across Kingston, with additional festivities in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay. The Jamaica Tourist Board publishes an overview of the season, and individual promoters publish their own event calendars and ticketing.
Source: visitjamaica.comCulture and history
Jamaica is known worldwide for reggae and dancehall rather than for mas, and its carnival is a comparatively modern festival. Trinidadian-style carnival took root through the University of the West Indies Mona campus celebrations, and the national season grew from there through the 1990s, with Bacchanal Jamaica becoming the best-known promoter of the modern era. Because the festival is not tied to Lent, it settled after Easter — a slot that gives Jamaica its own place in the international carnival calendar rather than competing with Trinidad. The result is a season with a distinctly Jamaican sound: soca and Jamaican soca alongside dancehall, in a country whose own music is one of the most influential in the world.
Source: visitjamaica.comGetting there
Kingston is the centre of the season and Norman Manley International Airport (KIN) is the closest gateway; Montego Bay (MBJ) is the larger tourist airport and is roughly a cross-island drive away, so visitors focused on Road March generally fly into Kingston. Costumes for the parade are bought through individual bands and popular sections sell out well before the season, so registration is normally done months ahead.
MasLife coverage
MasLife has not filmed Jamaica yet — the information above comes from verified public sources. If you filmed it, submit your video and it can be the first.
Next Jamaica Carnival
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Questions
- When is Jamaica Carnival 2027?
- Jamaica 2027 runs 4 April 2027.
- Where is Jamaica Carnival held?
- Jamaica Carnival takes place in Jamaica, Jamaica.
- How do I get my own Jamaica footage on MasLife World TV?
- Submit it at maslifeworldtv.com/submit. If it is your footage and it is from the road, we publish it with your credit.
