Fort-Liberte Carnival

Fort-Liberte, a fortified port founded by the Spanish in 1578 and refounded by the French as Fort-Dauphin in 1725, has in recent years served as host city for Haiti's rotating National Carnival, and when a scheduled national edition was cancelled over security concerns, the town organized its own first regional carnival instead, bringing kompa and roots bands to a city not traditionally associated with large-scale celebration.

Fort-Liberte, a historic port town in Haiti's northeast near the Dominican border, was founded by Spanish colonists as Bayaja in 1578 before being abandoned by 1605; the French reestablished it as Fort-Dauphin in 1725, building a fortified naval base there by 1731 under Louis XV that eventually included four coastal forts strung along the shore, among them Fort la Bouque, originally called Fort Saint-Louis and completed in 1736, and Fort Saint-Frederic and Fort Saint-Charles, both dating to 1740.