J'ouvert — pronounced “joo-vay”, from the French Creole jour ouvert, meaning daybreak — is the paint, powder and mud street party that opens Trinidad Carnival. It starts in the dark on Carnival Monday, around 3–4AM, and chips through the streets of Port of Spain until the sun is properly up. No costumes, no feathers: old clothes, a music truck, and a few thousand people who all look exactly the same by 5AM.

Its roots go back to Canboulay and the post-emancipation celebrations of the 19th century, which is why Trinidadians will tell you J'ouvert is the part of Carnival that matters most. WE J'ouvert has been on that road since 2018 — here's everything we know about it.