By: FRIDA AWA
The 28th edition of Rotterdam Summer Carnival was celebrated on Saturday the 28th of July 2012 in the harbour city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The Rotterdam Carnival is a yearly festival and one of the biggest in the country. It usually takes place in the city of Rotterdam. The carnival has always been a huge event attended by hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over Europe. This year’s carnival was as interesting as those from previous years. However, this year’s was the most colourful and interesting one so far.
On the day of the event, visitors and viewers were already present as early as 10am at West Kruiskade and Coolsingel waiting for the event proper to kick off. However, it did not start early and kept so many people waiting. The event finally started at about 17.00 and still drew the attention of so many people. From 17:00, the area was filled with so much energy, an atmosphere of the southern warm and exotic temperament can be felt. The weather was right as the sun was shinning. The music, the rhythm, the sounds and music, the happy faces and dancing crowd was a moment to behold!
The Rotterdam Carnival is not only about beauty, it is also about cultural inheritance. People from different cultural backgrounds were dressed in colourful attires and amazing costumes performing and parading the street with different drum beats and different dance styles. They also had various trucks driving through the street, representing different cultures and countries such as Suriname, The Netherlands Antilles, Cape Verde, Brazil, Turkey, Morocco, The Netherlands and a whole lot more. The majority of the countries that were represented are those from South America. In addition to the cultural attires and dancing, there was also the availability of diversified dishes from several countries.
The Rotterdam carnival is good for those who like to dance and enjoy the sound and beats of drums. And also those who fancy colourful attires. It is the most colourful and tropical festival celebrated in the country. The paraders took extreme care to make sure their costumes were luxurious, splendid, blooming, colourful and sometimes royal or weird.
The most interesting thing about this carnival is the fact that it is free and anyone can attend. It is a celebration of the whole community, across all social layers, devoid of origin, color, education and position. The celebration proceeded till late in the night with live musicians who performed on stage at the Churchillplein in Rotterdam.
The Rotterdam Summer Carnival was once a small party started by a group of Antillean carnival lovers. But over the years, the event has turned out to be one of the biggest celebrations of the city of Rotterdam. And it is visited by some 900,000 people from across the globe.
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