Spicemas starts weeks before the main parade days, as costume bands spend months designing and making their outfits. Each band chooses a theme — perhaps the ocean, the rainforest or Grenadian history — and every person in the band wears a costume that fits that theme. The costumes can be enormous, covered in feathers, sequins, mirrors and hand-painted fabric. Making them is an art form in itself.
The highlight is the Monday and Tuesday parade through the streets of St George's. Soca music blasts from enormous speakers on trucks called 'sound systems', and thousands of dancers — called 'masqueraders' or 'mas players' — follow through the streets in their costumes. The whole city becomes a giant moving stage. One of the most unique Grenadian traditions is the Jab Jab — revellers who cover themselves in paint, oil or molasses and dance wildly through the streets.
Alongside the parade, Spicemas includes calypso and soca competitions where performers compete for the title of Calypso Monarch or Groovy Soca Monarch. Judging takes into account lyrics, performance, costume and audience reaction. It is a serious and celebrated competition, and winning is one of the greatest honours in Grenadian culture.