Rolling Stone
“[A mask mandate] doesn’t necessarily mean that once you are inside, that it’s something you have to do,” one reveler told Rolling Stone.
On a searing Saturday afternoon, a massive crowd in neon beach attire bounces in unison to bass-heavy soca beats at the Miami-Dade County Fair and Exposition grounds 20 miles south of Miami Beach.
Hundreds of revelers, a majority of them maskless, holler and twerk as they slowly inch toward a tractor trailer converted into a roving DJ booth. Surrounded by a battery of speaker boxes, an emcee called out: “Trinidad! Barbados! Guyana! St. Lucia! St. Vincent! Jamaica! Antigua! Virgin Islands! Dominicana!”
A man-bunned party goer in a tie-dye sleeveless tank top and shorts, belted out his own chant, “Covid! Covid! Covid! Covid!”
Given the partygoers were squished together in tight quarters sharing aerosols, it was a sobering reminder that large parties, even held outdoors, pose a high risk in catching the respiratory disease that has killed at least 56,410 Floridians since the pandemic began.
After taking a hiatus in 2020, the annual celebration of Caribbean culture known as Miami Carnival returned this past weekend amid a still-thriving pandemic, creating general unease for organizers of large gatherings where social distancing is next to nil.
A marcher in Sunday’s parade wears a clear facemask with her gold costume.
....Kezias Wallace, a 20 year-old from Toronto, said he found the testing requirement inconvenient, but necessary. He also dismissed the mask policy as unenforceable given the event was outdoors during two scorching days.
“I am just ready to jump up and party,” Wallace said. “We have waited for so long to worry about [the organizers] pushing rules up our butt.”
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