Junkanoo is a festival with ancient African roots that is held all over The Bahamian diaspora, primarily on Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve night each year with the largest parade hosted in Nassau, on the island of New Providence. Bands of drummers, dancers and brass musicians numbering from a few dozen to thousands march through downtown Nassau in colorful, themed costumes elaborately decorated with glitter and paper mache.

Participants prepare for months leading up to the parades, rehearsing music and dance routines, preparing instruments like goat-skin drums (pictured) and constructing costumes in homes, offices, warehouses and spare spaces which are converted into makeshift studios called “shacks”.