Aruba’s Carnival Wins Permanent Place In Island Culture

Oct. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- The colour and costumes of carnival in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba are to win year-round recognition.

Plans have been announced to create a ‘Carnival Village’ in the island’s second city of San Nicolas, aiming to develop it into a major tourism attraction, as well as reinvigorating the southern region of Aruba.

Work is getting underway this month (October) to create a Carnival and Festival Museum. The £1.9 million project will include a museum, restaurant, souvenir shop, workshop and offices. It will include displays of Aruba’s best carnival floats and video guides to past carnival parades and events.

The workshop will be available to carnival participants to work on their displays and costumes, with access to sewing machines, glue guns and other tools.

The project has been announced as plans get underway for Aruba’s 60^th anniversary carnival, with parades and events culminating between January and March 2014.

San Nicolas is also the venue for a weekly Carubbian Festival, a carnival appetiser staged every Thursday. Running from 6pm to 10pm, this family-friendly festival showcases the multi-cultural charms of Aruba’s ‘Sunrise City’. Launched in 2011 and going from strength to strength ever since, the Carubbian Festival was designed to give visitors a taste of the island’s character and its enduring carnival spirit.

Plans for San Nicolas’ Carnival Village also include the creation of a Carubbian Street, based on the famed Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and reflecting the 80-plus contrasting cultures living together in San Nicolas.

For more information on the Carubbian Festival, carnival and other events and attractions in Aruba, please visit www.aruba.com