Carnival of Flowers

The sights to be seen at the Carnival of Flowers included the street theater pieces, which consisted of the parading of the body of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, convincingly played by an actor, through the streets of Port-au-Prince. There was also the sight of the many, varying colorful costumes, worn by dancers who shimmied along to the vibrant rhythm of the musicians playing lively Haitian beats. Also a spectacle of its own kind, were the protestors who set out to criticize the President's decision to hold the carnival this year.

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Close to 1, 500 people were in attendance of the 2013 staging of the 2nd annual Carnival of Flowers (Carnival des Fleurs). The festivities, which lasted for three days, from Sunday July 28th to Tuesday the 30th raised the eyebrows and the ire of more than a few critics; so much so, a few hundred of them attended the festivities solely to make their protestations heard. They cite their problem as the Carnival being a misappropriation of funds.

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The ire of the protestors who attended the Carnival des Fleurs was piqued by the decision of the President, Michel Martelly, to host the festival this year. Their grouse is with the estimated $2.2 million it took to fund the carnival, which many view as a non-productive, unnecessary waste of money that could have been used in any one of the other hundreds of needy sectors of the economy. While openly in opposition to the revelry going on at the Carnival, the protestors, paradoxically, added to the number of patrons at the festival.

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Carnival of Flower 2013. Though security at the 2013 Carnival of Flowers was tight, with more than half of the nation's police (60%) being in attendance to keep the peace. The heavily criticized Carnival, so put to question for everything from its cost to the day it commenced, July 28, the same day in 1915 when Haiti's occupation by the US began, was the idea of President Michel Martelly, who had hosted the mid-year festival in his former life as a singer.

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Carnival of Flower 2013. There were some Protests. The complaint voiced by the hundreds of protestors who took to the streets of downtown Port-au-Prince while the Carnival of Flowers, with its 1,500 patrons, was in full swing, was that the government should have used the $2.2 million budgeted to provide revelers a good time for other, more worthy, causes. Government officials have, however, charged them with being near-sighted, explaining that the festivals employed many individuals, including makeup artists and dancers, and is an investment in the country's culture that could pay significant dividends through tourism in the future.

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From a report issued by Michaelange Gédéon, the West region's director of police, thirty-something year old, Jean Noel Cerisier, a patron of the Carnival of Flowers, died on the first day of festivities after he was crushed by a float from which he had fallen. The musical group, Ambiance was playing on the float from which the young man fell.

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The second annual Carnival des Fleurs or Carnival of Flowers was staged from Sunday, July 28, through Monday, July 29 and finally culminated on Tuesday the 29th of July. During the three days of festivities, the streets of downtown Port-au-Prince were awash with party-goers who were having too much of a good time to even allow the rain to stop them. Women, adorned in fine feathers, laces, glitter and brightly colored makeup danced along with men in everything from regular clothes to costumes as gaily flourished as their female partners.

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Carnival of Flower 2013. Wife of the President, First Lady Sophia Martelly, was charged with maintaining the health of the revelers at the mid-year Carnival of Flowers, held over three days at the end of July 2013. Taking her responsibility seriously, she set up her own Emergency Care booth which, over the course of the carnival, treated some 250 plus people with injuries sustained from illness, accidents, fights and too much imbibing. She later thanked the nurses, paramedics, doctors and other participants who made it all possible.

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The Carnival of Flowers 2013 could have been nicknamed the Carnival of Injuries. Illnesses, liquor and bad choices that led to altercations, saw a reported 800 or so people being injured, including four children, during the three day span of activities marking the 2nd annual Carnival since its revival, with one fatality tarnishing the festivities after a man, said to be in his thirties, fell off a float and was fatally injured.

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