Calabar Cultural Festival and Black Atlantic Carnival Aesthetics in Nigeria

Every year since 2004, Calabar the city capital of Cross River Sate, Nigeria host the Calabar Carnival variously tagged as “Africa’s biggest street party”, “the pride of Nigeria”. This paper presents a Carnival event that was held from the first day of December to the last day of December 2024 in Calabar, The event is an “integrated Carnival package” comprising of main carnival with Caribbean (Trinidadian Carnival) costumes, children carnival, night of kings and queens, cultural carnival and international Ekpe (Leopard) masquerade festival, biking carnival, carnival night of music (secular and gospel and jokes, as well as Christmas carnival carol night. The massive and integrated nature of the annual carnival evidently puts Cross River State as a tourism destination in Nigeria.