What's on in Georgetown, Guyana through the year

Busy — Christmas and Old Year's Night, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in January.

Still on: Christmas and Old Year's Night (15 Dec – 1 Jan (usually))

Peak crowds — Mashramani, Phagwah

• Festival

  Mashramani

  15–24 FebCarnivalCrowded

  Republic Day on 23 February is kept as a costume-and-float parade with sound trucks working through the middle of the city. The word is Amerindian for a celebration after cooperative work, and it is the country's carnival. Source ↗

• Holiday

  Phagwah

  25 Feb – 25 Mar · usuallyReligious feastClosures

  Guyana's Holi is a public holiday and is played in the open, with abeer and powder in the streets and at the mandirs on the East Bank. Wear what you are prepared to throw away. Source ↗

Peak crowds — Phagwah, Easter kite flying

• Festival

  Easter kite flying

  20 Mar – 25 Apr · usuallyEaster & Holy WeekCrowded

  Easter Monday in Guyana means kites. Families pack the seawall and the Botanical Gardens with picnics and homemade kites, and the sky over Georgetown fills by afternoon. Source ↗

Still on: Phagwah (25 Feb – 25 Mar (usually))

Busy — Easter kite flying

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Easter kite flying (20 Mar – 25 Apr (usually))

Busy — Guyana Carnival

• Hazard

  Flooding in the city

  1 May – 31 Jul · usuallyFlood season

  Georgetown lies below sea level and drains through canals and kokers that only open at low tide. Heavy rain at high tide floods streets in several neighbourhoods, sometimes for days. Source ↗

• Festival

  Guyana Carnival

  18–27 May · usuallyCrowdedBook early

  A week of fetes and a road parade built around Independence Day on 26 May, the biggest party week of the year. Georgetown's limited hotel stock fills, so book ahead. Source ↗

Quiet — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, one of its worst months for weather

Nothing new starts in June.

Still on: Flooding in the city (1 May – 31 Jul (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in July.

Still on: Flooding in the city (1 May – 31 Jul (usually))

Busy — Emancipation festival

• Festival

  Emancipation festival

  1 AugMajor festivalCrowded

  The public holiday on 1 August centres on the African heritage festival in the National Park: drumming, dance, craft stalls and food villages, with concerts into the evening. Source ↗

Busy — school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it, one of its best months for weather

• Festival

  Amerindian Heritage Month

  1–30 SepMajor festival

  September honours Guyana's nine Indigenous nations. It opens at the Umana Yana benab in Kingston with dance, cassava bread and craft stalls, and Georgetown hosts markets and exhibitions through the month. Source ↗

Busy — Diwali motorcade

• Holiday

  Diwali motorcade

  10 Oct – 20 Nov · usuallyClosures

  Diwali is a national holiday here, and the night before it a motorcade of lit floats runs the length of the city with houses along the route in diyas. Traffic on the sea wall road stops for hours. Source ↗

Busy — Diwali motorcade

Nothing new starts in November.

Still on: Diwali motorcade (10 Oct – 20 Nov (usually))

Busy — Christmas and Old Year's Night, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Holiday

  Christmas and Old Year's Night

  15 Dec – 1 Jan · usuallyChristmas & New YearCrowdedClosures

  Stabroek Market and Regent Street are packed with shoppers in the run-up to Christmas; Boxing Day is also a holiday, and Old Year's Night ends with fireworks along the seawall. Source ↗