Saint Lucian band Zing Zing Kidz wins all titles at Miami Junior Carnival 2026

A junior carnival band founded by a daughter of Laborie has swept the board in Miami, taking every major prize at the 2026 Miami Broward Junior Carnival. Zing Zing Kidz, owned and run by Saint Lucian Ivy Lewis, collected its second consecutive Band of the Year crown at the event, which took place earlier this month in South Florida.

As reported by The Voice St. Lucia News, the band achieved a full sweep, winning Band of the Year as well as King of the Band, Queen of the Band, Male Individual and Female Individual, all five of the competition's leading honours. The winning presentation carried the theme Birds of a Feather, Together We Soar.

The Queen of the Band title went to Lewis's granddaughter, Heziyah Morris, who has now won it three years running, taking the crown in 2024, 2025 and again in 2026. Few young masqueraders can claim such a run at an overseas junior carnival.

Carnival royalty runs deep in the Lewis family. Heziyah's mother, Ebonie Lewis, once finished runner-up in the Queen competition at adult level, while Heziyah's aunt Channise Lewis and uncle Carlylian Lewis were previously named Junior Carnival Queen and King in Miami. The winning costumes were designed by Lisa Durity Mollineau, whose work was credited as a major factor in the band's clean sweep.

For Ivy Lewis, the trophies matter less than what they stand for. She sees the victories as a reflection of family togetherness, pride in Caribbean roots and a promise to pass carnival traditions on to the next generation, carrying Saint Lucian heritage from a small southern village to a major diaspora stage abroad.

The band's success speaks to the strong culture and traditions of Saint Lucia that travel with the diaspora. Carnival on the island itself is now a July affair rather than a pre-Lenten one, moved partly to avoid clumping with the far larger Trinidad celebrations and partly to attract more visitors. In 2026 the Lucian season ran from 1 to 22 July, with the Parade of the Bands in Castries on 20 and 21 July.

Anyone drawn by stories like this one will find that St Lucia festivals fill much of the calendar. The July carnival season builds through band launches, fetes, soca and calypso contests, the National Carnival Queen pageant, a junior parade and J'Ouvert, the pre-dawn street party that opens Carnival Monday with paint, powder and mud. Calypsonians compete each year, and the Panorama contest puts the island's steel pan players in the spotlight.

For those weighing up a trip, the best time to visit St Lucia for carnival is July, when the whole season peaks, though spring brings the Saint Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival and August sees Mercury Fest, which returned in 2026 after six years away with beach parties, a Poker Run along the coast and live music at Pigeon Island. Plenty of families time their holidays to St Lucia around these dates to catch the street celebrations first hand.

Zing Zing Kidz itself is an example of what family holidays in St Lucia can plant, since the band is led by three generations of one Laborie family who learned mas through the junior carnival circuit. Young masqueraders on the island follow a similar path, with junior parades feeding into the adult competitions as children grow up in the tradition.

Villages such as Laborie, south of Castries and away from the busier northern resorts, give visitors a quieter look at where traditions like these are rooted. Travellers booking hotels in St Lucia during the carnival season often split their stay between the north, where most of the big parade action happens, and the calmer south coast, where communities keep old customs alive in everyday life.

Whatever the season, there is no shortage of things to do in St Lucia around the festival calendar, from joining a mas band in costume to simply finding a spot along the parade route and following the music. The island's beaches in St Lucia also fill up during carnival week, with fete-goers recovering from the road in the sea between events.

Back in Miami, the Lewis family shows no sign of slowing down. With Heziyah Morris now a three-time Queen of the Band and the band holding back-to-back Band of the Year titles, Zing Zing Kidz will be one to watch when the junior carnival circuit reconvenes, and the family says its focus remains passing the tradition to the generation coming up behind them.