Bacchanal Fridays - Untamed Opening Night

Bacchanal Fridays kicks off the third week of February - Untamed in 2015.

Carnival drums roll as Bacchanal season continues to build each Friday thereafter at Mas Camp, party central for fans gearing up to "play mas."

Carnival organizers in Jamaica have extended what for other islands lasts no more than a week, over several months, from a preview the first Friday in January through to Road March when excitement peaks the Sunday after Easter.

With the start of Bacchanal Fridays, the year's costumes are unveiled, the new songs from the trailing 12 months soca catalogue are baptized on the masses and revelers start the wining. Jamaica's favorite soca DJs take turns at the turntables with visiting selectors for the twin islands throughout the season, and as Easter approaches top soca artists perform to bumping, frolicking and crowds.

A mid-summer refresher, Bacchanal Summer, is staged in mid-June to mid-July to hold the socaphiles until the following season.

Bacchanal Jamaica is led by three Mas bands in the Trinidadian tradition--Oakridge, Revelers, and Raiders--which have promoted parties in the country since launching carnival festivities in 1989.