Samuel Rosette from the Celebrate Seychelles Events Department this week announced that the countdown for the 2013 Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Carnival has began. Elsia Grandcourt, the CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board, has been proudly distributing the 2013 Carnival in the Seychelles brochure and program at every tourism trade fair or workshop. Emirates has again this year come forward as the Official Airline for this unique Carnival of Carnivals that is held annually in the middle of the Indian Ocean and for this edition of the Carnaval International de Victoria, Seychelles, La Reunion, and Madagascar of the Vanilla Islands Regional Organization have been joined by Zimbabwe as joint co-hosts.

This regional carnival remains unique as it is the only carnival that manages to assemble the best and most known carnivals to parade together alongside cultural troupes from the Community of Nations. The best carnivals come from far and wide to be part of the carnival in the beautiful tropical islands of the Seychelles. Carnival delegations from Brazil to Notting Hill of London, from Trinidad&Tobago to Dusseldorf in Germany, from Italy to France, all descend on Seychelles annually to be joined by incredible cultural groups from La Reunion island, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Indonesia, and the USA, among many others all flying their country’s flags in one of the most colorful carnivals held under the theme of the melting pot of cultures.

February 8-10, 2013 is the set date for the next Carnival of Carnivals and all final logistical arrangements are being attended to on the ground to ensure that the traffic flows, and the overseas delegations are getting confirmation of their accommodation requests, etc.

The carnival song for the 2013 edition of the Carnaval International de Victoria will be announced soon.

Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles Minister responsible for Tourism and Culture, said that he will be appraised on all the delegations making their way to Seychelles in a meeting set for next week.