The Theme
Each carnival, Seagull interprets the year's official theme through a bold visual language. 2026 brings Rethinking Our Collective Destiny, a meditation on unity and imagination.
Carnival Calabar
A carnival, staged as a story.
From studio to parade, the Seagull Carnival Experience is a year-long crescendo. This is how the 2026 theme, Rethinking Our Collective Destiny, is being brought to life.
2026 Theme
Rethinking Our Collective Destiny.
The 2026 edition invites Cross River, and the world, to imagine what comes next. Seagull answers with a procession built around unity, courage, and the quiet grandeur of the coast.
Expect sculptural silhouettes, layered feather-work, and a colour story that moves from deep crimson through ivory and gold, a portrait of a people reaching, together, for the horizon.
Four movements
How the experience is built.
The Costumes
Months of design, feather-work, beading and tailoring in the Seagull studio. Every silhouette is drawn to move, catch light, and read from across the parade.
The Choreography
500+ performers rehearsed into a single, breathing formation. Sections rotate, solos ignite, and the whole band moves as one on the 12-kilometre route.
The Road March
December in Calabar. Africa's Biggest Street Party. Seagull takes the parade in crimson and gold, an unforgettable, cinematic procession.
Witness it