Port of Spain - Event

The emancipation of Africans from slavery in Trinidad and Tobago on 1 August 1834 is commemorated with the Port of Spain's annual explosion of African and Afro-Caribbean culture. Attend drumming workshops, art exhibitions and networking symposiums and much more.

Traditional drummers, masters of the modern steelpan, artists, dancers, singers, lecturers and businesspeople from Trinidad and Tobago and African communities across the world descend on the Lidj Yasu Omowale Emancipation Village, the main venue.

The Emancipation Day Parade on the morning of 1 August, Emancipation Day, is a spectacular gathering of around 20,000 people on the Port of Spain's streets. Hear ancestral drums and chants, see the vivid colours of African textiles and catch supple capoeira dancers wowing the crowd and eerie mocko jumbies looming above you on stilts.