Kayak Mas Shakespeare Mas

Carriacou's Shakespeare Mas sends costumed performers, called Pierrots, into verbal duels reciting memorised passages from Julius Caesar, with a ceremonial whip strike as the traditional penalty for stumbling or misquoting. Fusing colonial-era literary education with African-derived masquerade performance, the tradition is found nowhere else in the Caribbean and closes Carriacou's carnival week with its most distinctive single event.

Shakespeare Mas closes Carriacou's carnival with one of the Caribbean's most distinctive masquerade traditions: costumed performers, known locally as Pierrots, recite memorised passages from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in the street, and if a rival performer can catch them faltering, misquoting or hesitating, tradition allows a ceremonial whip strike as a penalty for the mistake.