Yes.......Yes, ATL Carnival was bess this year. I didn't even get to hit everything but you know what, all the parties that I did make it to were very very good.
This is the kind of thing I'd been missing all these years, days passing with little sleep, so much alcohol flowing, you'd swear we owned a rumshop. I won't go into all the meaty details but I will note that the party in the square after the parade, was particularly good, with many of the big acts destroying the crowd as usual (Kerwin, Iwer, etc.)
But I have to give it to my good friends the Arthurs who showed up at Wear White Sunday night with a big cooler in the trunk. I pulled up, there's a crowd round the car, hard soca ponging and most importantly, rum punch. They'd only been there 30 minutes but already the rum punch was gone, the vodka was about gone, the rum was halfway done, they'd finished most of the smirnoff.......and mind you this was before we event went into Wear White.
By 6:30 am they were sweeping the floors but you know what, we went over to C&J Hideaway to carry on the partying. I swear we didn't leave the Hideaway till about 9 the Monday morning. This is the kind of shit I missed but no more. We'll be out there ponging hard for Caribana (maybe) this year plus New York for Labour Day and definitely Miami.
Atlanta Carnival has had a somewhat sordid history fraught with controversy and whatnot but most important of all, it was never really any fun. Well, one of the oldest and largest Carnivals in the US has finally figured it out. I hope they keep on doing it like this from now on.
