The Exquisite Caribana Fest

Our Canada promoter Chris Shamsher has some fun pictures today. He says, “I attended the Caribana Festival over the weekend and it was a lot of fun, like last year. We had the inside passes to the festival so we were able to get “up close & personal”. Among the highlights is the Parade, one of the largest in North America, where thousands of brilliantly costumed masqueraders and dozens of trucks carrying live soca, calypso, steel pan, reggae and salsa artists, jammed the 1.5 km parade route all day, to the delight of about 1.2 million onlookers. ”

He says,the costumes were exquisite, at a cost of thousands of dollars each, some so large that they touched the high overhead bridges along the route of the parade. The steel bands on large moveable stages, featuring steel drums, made out of steel barrels (a typical Caribbean instrument) produced some of the most amazing musical sounds.

Caribana was created in 1967 as a community heritage project for Canada’s Centennial year. Based on Trinidad Carnival, the Festival now also includes the music, dance, food and costumes of Jamaica, Guyana, the Bahamas, Brazil and other cultures represented in Toronto – the world’s most culturally diverse city.

Next Stop: The taste of the Danforth

(Chris Shamsher can be contacted at chris@thesipoflife.com)