Carnival Pricing: Part 2
Hello my fellow Carnival Lovers, Fayola here.
Today I am bringing you another instalment of the Carnival pricing series. It’s costume time!
Costumes
The costume is the big shabang. It’s what people think about when you tell them Carnival: the beads, the feathers, the colours. In my opinion, it is just as important as your accommodation, a mandatory part of your Carnival experience.
There are many types of costumes, but I am going to touch on the two main ones: J’ouvert and Pretty Mas.
J’ouvert
As with everything, there is a lower end and higher end spectrum to j’ouvert costume pricing, however, the average “popular” j’ouvert band will charge you between $120 to $150 USD. These costumes usually consist of a printed t-shirt, vest or monokini, along with a gimmick to go with this year’s theme: a hat, a whistle or a mask of some kind. Where you will get your money’s worth (like any band really) are the vibes and the amenities.
For the price range listed above, the band is usually all-inclusive and will provide you with a pre-party that includes breakfast, drinks (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and an after-party that can last up to 4 hours and may even have a water truck! Depending on your preference your j’ouvert experience can last anywhere from 5 to 10 hours. I don’t know about you but that sounds like value for money to me.
Pretty Mas
When we jump into the beads and feathers, there are two main categories we want to look at first that will determine pricing: inclusivity (all-inclusive or not) and band size (small, medium, large).
I know, it may be hard to believe, but there are still a couple of bands that are NOT all-inclusive. Most of them do have all-inclusive options but it is not included in the base price as it is with most of the other bands. As such these bands will have lower starting prices than others.
Band size, I think, is one of the sure fire ways to lower your costume cost. The basic trend (of course there are some exceptions) is that the smaller the band the lower the cost. Please keep in mind that most of the bands that are extremely popular are large bands and therefore have a higher cost. A typical all-inclusive medium band can cost you around $400 to $650 USD whilst a typical large band will run from $700 to $1,200 USD.
Why the range you ask? Well that’s based on the type of costume you want to wear. Are you a bikini and minimum feathers kind of girl? Are you a more beads, no feathers person? Or are you the most feathers, most beads, least coverage type of hunnie? The answer to these questions separates the types of costumes these large bands offer and tells you what end of the price range you’re looking at. The easiest trend I can give for this is, the bigger the costume, the higher the price.
Backline costumes are usually the bikini or monokini version of that section with no embellishments and lie on the lower end of the price spectrum. The mid-range costumes (called different things by different bands) usually include the backline bodywear with added feathers, be it a collar or leg pieces. Frontline costumes are those with the large feathered backpacks and leg pieces and have special bodywear (usually a monokini and wire bra) and lie at the higher end of the price spectrum.
For the vibes of some popular bands and what all-inclusive mas bands tend to offer, check out our band guide.
If you think these posts are a good idea, have any topics you want me to address or just want to tell me how great you think this blog post is 😊 leave a comment below!
Until next time….