Veronica Buza: What I would recommend

There are definitely a few things I would recommend to others, particularly tourists/overnight visitors, who are attending Junkanoo. First of all, get your beauty rest the night before. All of Nassau will be at the event and you’ll want to look your best. Just kidding. You’ll actually need that rest in order to stay the duration of the festival, which is in the middle of the night for about twelve hours. Secondly, pack a cooler with drinks and a snack. There are concessions, but navigating the seating arrangement to get there can be a bit difficult. You should definitely talk to Bahamians once you’re at the festival. There are lags in between performances, giving you the perfect opportunity to meet new people and really learn about their culture from different viewpoints. Lastly, just enjoy the whole experience and choose which group is your favorite!

Jennifer Li - Recommendations

The Junkanoo was an amazing experience, I'm sure it's the same for locals and visitors but I would definitely recommend a few things. First, I thought I could get through the whole festival without a nap but I was wrong. Sleep is key! The festival begins roughly at 2 am and continues all through the night until about 12 pm. Maybe because I’m getting older but by 6 am my eyes were closing. Another tip would be to try the local foods. The festival is a perfect time to explore and experience the island. The food stands were cheap and delicious. And lastly, two words – BUG SPRAY. I don’t know if mosquitos love my blood or I’m just unlucky but I regret not applying bug spray. But the Junkanoo was extremely amazing and unforgetting, you’ll understand when you experience it.

Jennifer Li - What I Learned

I'm definitely glad I took the opportunity to "experience the Bahamas" rather than just visit the Bahamas. My major take aways would probably be always stay opened minded. I was nervous before the course because I didn't know any of the other students or anything about the Junkanoo. But as the course came to an end I realized how much I had learned about the other students, the Junkanoo, and the Bahamas in general. I learned how to create a service map, IPA analysis, and customer journey, but overall how to create a marketing plan. I also learned about the history of the Bahamas. We toured different parts of the Bahamas in both Eleuthera and Nassau. From the pink sand beaches to the downtown area (Bay Street), I experienced the Bahamas.

Jennifer Li - Junkanoo Experience

Hi everyone! My experience with Junkanoo was so incredible I can barley find the words to describe it. First off, prior to the Junkanoo Festival, I couldn't even pronounce the name correctly. I tried my best to resist the urge to search up videos on the festival so I wouldn't have any expectations. When the time came for the festival the only information I knew was that all the costumes were made from cardboard by the participants and also the music was created by the participants. To kick off the Junkanoo, my group volunteered for the "circle" (see video below). It was a great beginning and my experience only went up from there. The live music was spectacular! There were multiple times where the audience even began dancing with the groups. Even though by 8AM I could barley keep my eyes opened, I knew I definitely didn't make the wrong decision by attending Junkanoo. This experience was unforgettable and extremely eye-opening.

3. Richard Wenbang Zhu: Recommendations

Junkanoo is not only a celebration of native Bahamian but a showcase of art and lifestyle of Caribbean. From the perspective of a spectator who has already thoroughly experienced this event, I would recommend this festival to as many people as I can. I am an international students studying in USA, therefore I want to give some advices or recommendations towards international tourists from my point of view.

Pre-visit ticket purchasing is a part that Junkanoo organizers are working on to improve customer experience by building a more user-friendly official website towards tourists especially international tourists. Even though there are no so many channels to purchase tickets before you arrive at Nassau, you can find tickets available at the box office before the event starts. To better involve yourselves into this event, international tourists may want to know a little about the history of Junkanoo and its related performance features. Additionally, before international tourists witness this grand festival, give a shot to cowbells and goatskin drums may be a good idea and these instruments are available right at the Straw Market on the Bay Street.

The map of Bay Street or even the map of Nassau would be a great help when you were at the scene of Junkanoo. I believe almost every international tourist who has not yet attend similar festivals would be shocked by the vibrant color of costumes and powerful live music displayed at Bay Street. In addition, due to its intensive performance period feature, international tourists who want to witness the entire festival may want to get prepared physically before the event. Junkanoo starts at around 2 am and the overnight experience would be a challenge for those international tourists who have no physically preparation, such as sufficient sleep the day before. And of course do not forget to bring you camera or cell phone and record this unforgettable ceremony at the capital of The Bahamas Islands. 

2. Richard Wenbang Zhu: Takeaways from this course

The highlight of this course is the presentation towards government officials at Ministry of Youth and Culture, but besides the presentation itself, we had wonderful memories in this Bahamas course and I believe it’s beneficial to me from all perspective. Before the course, we did a lot of homework and preparation including Dr. Bethel’s research into the economic impact of Junkanoo and many theoretical reports as well as textbooks. The preparation for Junaknoo was also rewarding. In order to understand this unique Caribbean festival, we did a lot of research online and offline. Before the event, researches and preparations were fruitful.

The course started at 28^th Dec, 2014 with a quiz at the pool. Everybody loves the style and method of teaching of this course by Dr. Levy and we were led to execute individual project before we apply our preparation on Junkanoo. Speaking of the individual project, we carried out the mystery shopping procedure and the evaluation on several restaurants. I applied the mystery shopping on Johnny Rockets at the Marina Village. After that, we were divided into teams and applied the revised research methods, including IPA analysis and service mapping, to Junkanoo.

We thoroughly experienced the Junkanoo festival from 2 am to 8 am on the New Year’s Day. Besides all the knowledge acquiring mentioned above, witnessing this grand event not only helps in our project but enrich our experience. We put ourselves into the customers’ shoes and gave advice from professional perspectives. Mystery shopping application was practiced thoroughly that we can later employ this into related study and work.

After this event, we carefully analyzed each and every item (94 standards) listed on the evaluation form and came out the Importance Performance Analysis graph. Notably, the IPA is also a useful tool in our later career and researches. As a first year graduate, I am not familiar with marketing strategies, but through this course, I understand basic social media monitoring applications as well as fundamental marketing tools. The team building was impressive since our teams were comprised of students with diversified backgrounds. Cooperation and communication skills were developed in this course as well as skills to cope with uncertainties in exotic cultural environment. 

(BTW, we stayed in the Comfort Suites for most of the nights and it's a good place for class, isn't it?)

1. Richard Wenbang Zhu: Junkanoo experience

The Junkanoo experience for me is unique and unforgettable. The overnight observance at the Bay Street is resonating when I watch the videos and photos I took that night. Being part of this grand event endows me the chances to sharing most vibrant performances and shining hand-made costumes on this Caribbean island. Though the Junkanoo festival needs to be improved, like many other festivals worldwide, this experience did bring me surprise even from the professional perspective. Unlike many festivals that I’ve experienced in my country, including the famous Lantern Festival and Spring Festival, Junkanoo is so inclusive and vibrant that these features make it outstanding from festival experience all over the world.

Speaking of its inclusive feature, I couldn’t forget the saying that Junkanoo comes from turning junk into something new. The fact is we see so many hand-made costumes at the Junkanoo and the sound of cowbell and goatskin drums created a variety types of music. In Bahamian culture, almost every residence in Nassau would participate in this national festival, and every year there are tremendous amount of international tourists coming to witness this grand ceremony. The meaning behind Junkanoo represent the independence and voice of native Bahamian since it was created. Nowadays, it became a useful tool to educate the younger generation of Bahamian. I met Dr Cartwright at a book store in Nassau. She addressed that the history of Junkanoo is deeply rooted in native Bahamian culture and it almost includes every aspects of Bahamian cultural essence. She also told me that she was not allowed to attend this grand festival in her early twenties due to the reason that main performers in Junkaoo at that time were men, but now she wants to bring her passion to this festival and become part of the history. Junkanoo is improving along its development, but the inclusiveness of Junkanoo has never fade away.                    

Junkanoo is vibrant, both in terms of the colorful hand-made costumes and Bahamian live music. We experienced Junkanoo from 2 am to 8 am at the Bay Street that day. Notably, the long time period was worthwhile with surprises and passion. The Valley Boys’ performance at the Rawson Square turned out to be the most memorable part of my experience. Over the almost 8 hours’ experience at downtown Nassau, I witnessed so many amazing costumes and impressive sound of Bahamas. Native Bahamian are so energetic that they performed this without rests. It’s so professional that they precisely control the interval time period between connecting performances and avoid intervene of different kinds of music.

Overall, my experience of Junkanoo may be similar to other spectators, but we all experienced this unique Caribbean festival. This is bound to be an unforgettable experience for all the spectators.