Caribana festival in Toronto

It was another steaming hot day in Toronto when my curiosity leads me to head down to the harbour shore to catch the Caribana festival. It is apparently the largest Caribbean festival in North America and similar to London's famous Notting Hill Carnival.

According to the website 'Thousands of brilliantly costumed masqueraders and dozens of trucks carrying live soca, calypso, steel pan, reggae and salsa artists jam the 1.5 km parade route all day, to the delight of hundreds of thousands of onlookers.'
Toronto's Caribana is described as breaking down of the artificial barriers of society - like class, race and wealth. It is a celebration of literal and spiritual emancipation. It is generally perceived to be based on Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.
This sounds good...
I checked its location and set a course towards the event on my cheap bike that I purchased to get around town.
As I neared the road that was the parade route it became busier and more crammed with people and cars. The costumes were amazing, lots of large feathered head pieces amongst the Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaican flags.
I got to the parade route and watched some of the floats. At first they were very spread out and I was disheartened to see an army recruitment float booming ragga from its ramparts. I saw about four floats then there was a gap so I presumed that was it, I went off and had a swim at a pool on Lake Ontario's shoreline. As I was drying off and reading my book I heard the sound of deep bass pulsing at a steady rate. On returning to the Carnival route I was amazed to see the influx of people and the array of floats that headed towards me. The vibe had heated up, massive semi trailers absolutely full of huge sound systems cruised by pumping a techno electro mix of soca and carnival music. Other floats had full steel bands aboard. People danced around these giant party machines and as the afternoon wore on the perimeter fences were breached and the boundaries that had existed before separating the general public and carnival participants were blurred in the giant street party.
Individuals wore massive costumes that needed wheels to keep them up, looking like giant peacocks with different themes. The spectacle was amazing, I had to ditch my bike and lock it to a tree to delve into the carnival madness. I have never seen a larger collection of 'Cerwin Vega' bass in one place in my life. The floats kept coming and when I liked the music on one I'd follow it down the street trying to find shade from the powerful sun whenever possible. M.C's and singers hyped the crowd and gaudy bangles were thrown from floats into the mass's who scrambled to catch them and pick them up. The predominantly Afro American and Caribbean crowd had massed to mammoth proportions and it was hard to move around. The smells from all the Caribbean food stalls was enticing but I had blown my budget for the day buying a soca mix c.d that on a later listen was not the style that I had been hearing here. It was hard to leave; I followed the parade up to the show grounds near the city and found the nest that they all emanated from. There were scores more waiting to leave, so many people and speakers and flags as far as the eye could see.
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


As the sun got lower I cycled off all the roads gridlocked for a kilometer or so around the event. Suffering a little bit of sunstroke I headed home and had a couple of quite beers

The whole town was in a buzz over Caribana, the next day Steve and I cycled to the free concert on the Harbour front featuring Ernest Raglan and Barrington Levi. Ernest Raglan used to be in the Skatalites and in his seventies now is still pumping out his trademark guitar style over a rock steady ska rhythm section. We returned to the space later that night for Barrington Levi's set and it was rammed. It was really hard to get to a good vantage point. He went through a lot of my Barrington faves like Broader than Broadway, Living Dangerously, Black roses and Under Mi Sensi and jammed out a medley section of lot of his famed rhythms. He was very conscious and did a lot of vocals without the bands accompaniment. This guy has an amazing voice and his new material was awesome.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Carnival
• Caribana
• Toronto
• Soca

[islandgirl3330]

It is nice to see someone taking the time to write something that is positive for a change. I go to watch the bands in the stadium every year because I don't like the crowds on the street. I am glad that you had a good time.

[Anzeon]

What's the name of the first song?

[followmenow123321]

Sounds like the first song is about killing Chinese people.

[martiniblue29]

how much was caribana outfit?

[gtblazin816]

its carnival-destra &machel montano

[mdanie3]

OMG I love Caribana. I haven't been ages. I think I'll catch it this summer.

[kgmahabir]

Its Carnival- Destra

[trinigeria]

whats the first song called

[Rajesrie]

i knoo itz true 2007 wasz better hope this year gonna be better

[kimstarr28]

what is the song at 00:30 ??