In the carnival months of February and March, Calypso is performed with competitions, where the winners are crowned Calypso King and Queen. Calypso or as the town's people call it "Calipso" is one of the most popular cultural tradition that the city is well known for in the rest of the country. Popular insturuments used in the performance of the music are the drums, cuatro, maracas, guitar, bandolin, violin and the steel drum.
El Callao (in Estado Bol�var) has been a melting pot since it was founded as Caratal in 1853. It attracted gold-hunting adventurers from England, America, France and the Caribbean islands, who found release from endless hours of labour in the gold mines by letting go completely at carnival time. Their celebrations added to the festival fervor of the region's slaves, allowed to really enjoy and express themselves this one time in the year. Carnival has now become a four-day event in El Callao with thousands of tourists coming to enjoy the infectious energy of the Carnaval.
The musical and Carnival traditions brought from the British West Indies and French Antilles have evolved to today's distinctive sounds. You can still here the primitive rhythms of Kalinda and the first calypsos. The song stories narrating local events in a picaresque tone combines with the use of Venezuelan instruments such as maracas, bumbac drums that are hung of the shoulder with a strap, cuatros rallos, bells and whistles.
Notable among the more traditionally attired dancers are the Madamas, who wear showy robes in the style of the matrons of Guadeloupe and Martinique, featuring distinctive African headscarves and the Devils - The Carnival in El Callao is known for its impulsive devils and their devil masks.
Besides the typical trident-wielding devils with hideous masks and red and black costumes, there are the local Mediopinto, who coat themselves in black paint and threaten to do the same to anyone who refuses to give them a donation
