Caribana

The Toronto Caribbean Carnival, formerly and previously called Caribana (1967-2006), Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) (2006-2007), Scotiabank Caribana (2007-2011), Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival (2011-2015), Peeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival (2017-2018) Toronto Caribbean Carnival (2018–present) is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a Caribbean Carnival event, that has been billed as North America's largest street festival,[2] frequented by over 1.3 million visitors each year for the festival's final parade and an overall attendance of 2 million.[3] The entire event, which is one of the first Caribbean Carnivals along with those in New York City, Notting Hill and Boston to be held outside of the Caribbean region, brings in over one million U.S. citizens to Toronto and over $400 million into Ontario's economy, annually.[4]

Toronto Caribbean Carnival
AbbreviationTCC[1]
Formation1967-2006 (CAG/CCC)
2006-present (FMC)
TypeCultural festival
Legal statusActive, non-profit
PurposeCelebration of Caribbean heritage
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario, Canada
Location
  • 19 Waterman Avenue Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario
Official language
English, French
CEO of Festival Management Committee - Producers of Toronto Carnival
ANEESA OUMARALLY (August 2019-present)
Main organ
Festival Management Corporation
Parent organization
Festival Management Committee
AffiliationsCity of Toronto government, Toronto Mas Bands Association , Ontario Steelpan Association
Budget
CA$1.2 million
Staff
12
Volunteers
1,000+
Websitetorontocarnival.ca

The 2020 event (like many other carnival events worldwide) was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

The 2020 festival will take place but in a Virtual Format starting on July 3,2020.

Cultural significance

The festival was introduced to Canada by immigrants from the Caribbean. It follows a Carnival format, particularly following the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, but also influenced by the street dancing and masquerading in costume found on every Caribbean island such as John Canoe in Jamaica, Crop Over in Barbados, and other similar festivals in Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. The Carnival participants say that this event is very important for preserving and expressing their Caribbean identity.[6]

A commonality between these cultural events is a cultural legacy that is born out of slavery.[7] Caribana also taps into the legacy of the Canadian Negro Women's Organization's pre-Lenten Calypso Carnival celebrations[8] and the centuries-long Black Canadian tradition of Emancipation Day parades.[3]

Celebrations such as Calypso Carnivals and the Emancipation parades made a lot of room for the Caribbean to exist as such a large observance of black Canadian pride. Canada’s Carnival traditions owe a lot to the Canadian Negro Women’s Association, or CANEWA, who were one of the first groups to make space for the commemoration of black history within Ontario. Although a majority of the members did not have Caribbean roots, from 1952-1964 CANEWA produced, funded, and hosted annual one-day celebrations of Caribbean culture through food, dance, and music called the Calypso Carnivals. These carnivals began as fundraisers for scholarships in order for black students to attend recently desegregated schools in southern Ontario. Emancipation Day Parades began to celebrate the liberation of slaves throughout the Americas and were largely observed around the same time as the Calypso Carnivals. The founders of this parade were largely decadents of fugitive slaves and other black American immigrants. The parades were marked as a black victory over the British and operated as a military-style event, displaying military regalia, marching bands, and drum corps. Emancipation Day Parades became the most notable displays by and for Black Canadians prior to Caribana.[9]

Beginning in July, the multi-week festivities lead up to the parade which occurs over the Simcoe Day long weekend which occurs on the first weekend in August. Simcoe Day is named in honour of John Graves Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (today's Ontario) who is credited with signing An Act to Prevent the Further Introduction of Slaves, and to Limit the Terms of Contracts for Servitude Within This Province (1793). The festival also coincides with August 1, which is also known as Emancipation Day.

Puff Daddy's performance in the festival in 1997 sparked a wave of criticism and protest, as "opinions lamenting the presence and dominance of urban music in general and rap in particular flooded talk radio programs and newspapers in the black community." Longtime Carnival purists mocked Puff Daddy’s performance as "culturally weak, capitalistic, and a 'flash in the pan.'” Many observers raised concerns regarding cultural retention and festival organizers' moral-cultural responsibility.[10]

Events

Several events occur over the course of the festivities celebrating Caribbean culture. The main stakeholders of the events are the Toronto Mas' Bands Association, the Organization of Calypso Performing Artists, and the Ontario Steelpan Association.

While the Parade of Bands is the most-well known festivities, events include tastes of Caribbean life including exhibits, such as the first Caribana which displayed every book published by a Caribbean writer, including Austin Clarke who was the centrepiece of the exhibition; theatre plays, such as Austin Clarke's "Children of the Scheme", which dealt with the plight of Caribbean women who came to Canada on the domestic immigrant worker scheme; and fashion shows.

Grand Parade
Caribana festivities culminate with the Parade of Bands during the civic holiday in August.

While the Caribbean Festival holds events over several weeks, the culmination of the Caribana event is the final weekend which is punctuated by the street Parade of Bands. This weekend traditionally coincides with the civic holiday in August. The street Parade of Bands consists of costumed dancers (called "Mas players") along with live Caribbean music being played from large speakers on the flat-bed of 18 wheeler trucks. Much of the music associated with the event, such as steel pan, soca and calypso, but you can also find floats which play chutney, dancehall and reggae.

Band leaders start preparation for the following year, the day after the parade ends. As of 2017, Whitfield Belasco has led a band since his brother recruited him from the Trinidad Carnival to help organize the first Caribana in 1967.[11]

The bands are the most important part of the main Carnival parade. The bands are actually in competition with one another during the parade. They must pass a judging spot which will rate each band section for its costume design, the energy of masqueraders, the creativity of presentation and so on. Work on the costumes begin soon after the previous year's celebration and usually takes one full year to complete all of the costumes. Bands typically dances to calypso, soca, reggae, jazz, and dancehall. A King and Queen of the Band is also judged, and winning is considered claiming the biggest prize of the festival.

In the 1970s, the parade route originally followed Bloor and Yonge Streets ending at Toronto City Hall concluding with a concert at Nathan Phillips Square.[12] In the 1980s, the parade ran along Bay and University Avenue. Since 1991, when the parade shifted to Lake Shore Boulevard into Exhibition Place, barricades were introduced to separate the spectators from those playing mas

King and Queen Showcase

The night before the grande parade, all the kings and queens (leaders) of the bands compete on stage at Lamport Stadium to be named King and Queen of Carnival.

Calypso Monarch

An event where the Calypso Monarch is crowned.

Junior Carnival Parade

The junior carnival (commonly known as Kiddie Carnival) has run since, at least, the 1990s and provides an opportunity for young masquerades to dance through the streets. Similar to the grand parade, the junior carnival consists of a series of bands with leaders who display costumes in competition.

J'ouvert

In addition to the main parade, the Caribbean community also celebrates a smaller pre-dawn parade known as J'ouvert (Pronounced "Jou-vay"). This too has been modelled after and taken from Trinidad Carnival. In Caribbean French-creole this means "day open" or morning. The J'ouvert portion of Carnival is the more rhythmic part of the Carnival celebration and is usually featured with steelpan bands, and persons using improvised musical instruments. It is not usually accompanied by any singing but will have a lot of whistles and other music makers. Spectators and or persons "playing Mas" will occasionally get themselves covered from head-to-toe with mud, flour, baby powder, or different water-colored paints in the tradition of the Caribbean-based J'ouvert celebrations. In many instances, everyone in the band is supposed to resemble evil spirits while parading around at night. There are some common characters[13] that are a part of Afro-Caribbean folklore[14][15] and include things like Red Devils (people covered in red paints), Blue Devils (people covered in blue paints), Green devils, Black devils, Yellow devils, White devils, (usually people throwing baby powder or flour.) or people just covered in other concoctions which are supposed to resemble mud[16] or oil.[17][18]

Fêtes
Musicians playing the drums during Caribana.

Leading up to the main parade a number of Caribbean music artists perform in Toronto. These parties are generally called "fêtes", for a French-Creole Caribbean word meaning "festival", and usually start in June–July.

Picnics (Food Fest)

Originally taking place on the Toronto Islands, the island picnics now occur at Ontario Place. Picnics are two days of feasting on rotis, jerk chicken and festival, callaloo, goat head soup, potato pudding, pelau, fried fish, cow foot, rum cakes; drinking sorrell, Mauby, and ginger beer; and dancing to music.

Calypso tents

Talk tents contain shows featuring storytellers, comedians and others well versed in oral traditions.[19]

Gala (Carnival Ball)

The gala, debuted in 2008, is an evening of elegance celebrating Carnival music, arts, and the works of the pioneers of the Caribana festival.

History
Further information: History of Caribana (1967–71)

Caribana has been run annually since 1967, first performed as a gift from Canada's Caribbean community, as a tribute to Canada's Centennial. Billing itself as a multicultural nation, the Canadian government invited ethno-cultural groups to contribute celebrations with representations of their ethnic diversity.[20] The name Caribana was invented by the organizers to capture the notions of Canada, the Caribbean, bacchanal and merrymaking.[3] Caribana emerged during a time when many Caribbean residents emigrated to Canada following immigration reform, internationally acclaimed singers, such as Harry Belafonte, was popularizing Caribbean music (in fact, Harry Belafonte sang to a sold out crowd at the O'Keefe Centre in Toronto), Civil Rights Movement activities such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., visited Canadian audiences, and Muhammad Ali fought against the Canadian heavyweight champion George Chuvalo.[3]

A Caribana parade participant in 1977.

The main Caribana events were run by a nonprofit Toronto-based organization, the Caribbean Cultural Committee (CCC), its board members mostly made up of expatriate-Caribbean nationals living in Canada. Charles Roach and Julius Iaasc (the first Black judge of the Federal Court of Appeal) were among the community leaders who organized the first Caribana.[3]

As the festival became a permanent annual event, the festival organization became dependent on borrowing money from the City of Toronto prior to the festival, to be repaid out of festival profits (if any) afterwards. By 1992, the festival had built up a very substantial debt to the City. The City of Toronto controversially forgave the entire outstanding debt after the 1992 event.[21] The same year, Caribana developed a new partnership with Toronto-area hotels.[22]

In 1993, the organization fired its operating chief.[23] At launch in Nathan Phillips Square, Premier Bob Rae calls the event a "beacon of hope" for all Canadians, as a symbol of racial harmony. "Carry a Can to Caribana" launched, in support of Daily Bread Food Bank.[24] Also in 1993, the Caribana Marketplace covered market was added at Marilyn Bell Park along the parade route.[25] A well-behaved crowd and barricades along the entire parade route contributed to an incident-free parade.[26] With attendance down, the board chair blamed the federal and provincial tourism ministries for not funding their American advertising campaign.[27]

In September 2004, after the 37th festival, the consul general of Trinidad and Tobago pledged to work more closely with Caribbean Cultural Committee to get support for the carnival from the business community; the committee received around CA$1 million that year from the national, provincial, and city governments, but it cost about twice that to run the festival.[28]

In 2006, the Caribbean Cultural Committee ran into financial troubles again. Because of a lack of financial accountability, the City of Toronto government cut off funding until the organization could get its finances in order. Instead, the funding was given to the Toronto Mas Band Association which had organized the festival in 2002. Due to an ongoing dispute about the ownership of the trademark "Caribana", the 2006 festival was promoted as "the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana)".

A costume designed by Centennial College's School of Hospitality, Tourism, and Culture for the 2010 parade.

In May 2010, the festival added a new initiative to involve post-secondary schools. The only college to participate was Centennial College School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culture, where they created a costume theme of the Tropical Amazon.[29] On September 1, 2010, new management took over the Festival Management Committee (FMC) and named Denise Herrera-Jackson as CEO/Chair of FMC and Chris Alexander as CAO.

A naming dispute arose over the use of "Caribana." The Caribbean Cultural Committee claimed that it legally held the trademark for "Caribana". In April 2010, a panel for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ruled that Scotiabank, as the sponsors of the Caribana festival, did not have grounds for being awarded the domain name caribana.com from its current owners the Working Word Co-operative.[30] In 2011, the Ontario Superior Court Of Justice ruled that the Caribana Arts Group (CAG), the successors of Caribbean Cultural Committee (CCC), has legal rights to the name Caribana.

In December 2018 it was announce Richard De Lima was named new CEO / General Manager of the Festival Management Committee (Corporation) by Joe Halstead and FMC Board.

In August 2019 the FMC Board appoints ANEESA OUMARALLY as its new CEO effective immediately,

In 2019 UNESCO the Canadian Commission officially recognizes the festival and names as a Cultural heritage property.

On April 9 2020 The Board Of Directors of Festival Management Committee officially announced due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic the 2020 festival (including the festival launch, junior kiddies carnival, Queen and King competition shows and the grande parade) has been cancelled for the safety for all participants and visitors. [31]

In Late May/June 2020 it was announced by Festival Management Committee's CEO; Anneesa Oumarally that the 2020 Festival will take place in a virtual format accessing the festival from 2019 footage beginning July 3 at Toronto City Hall via festival website, facebook,twitter,instragram and Zoom , the virtual format will be hosted by Kevin Carrington ( The Voice )

Incidents

Incidents have sometimes occurred at the festival, though organizers have long disassociated themselves from the violence. Said Lennox Farrell in 1992: "We as a board abhor any kind of violence whatsoever. If violence occurs outside a Blue Jays game, it is not ever associated with the Blue Jays game. We wonder why in the mind of the press... that shooting has become associated with Caribana."[32]

  • 1971: A car accident caused parade route deaths and injuries,[33] and public transit fumbles which led to fighting.[34]
  • 1993: On July 28, a 29-year-old jumped off a Caribana cruise boat at 11 pm, telling friends that he would meet them on shore at Ontario Place. The Trillium, the boat they were on, was about 300 feet (100 metres) from shore. Police recovered his body on the 30th.[35] The victim's mother was hurt by speculation about his sobriety.[36] Another man was stabbed in the finger.[26] A barrier fell at one point, the crowd assisted in bringing them back up.[27]
  • 1996: August 3, 1996: Elrick Christian, 23, was shot and killed and three others, including a nurse visiting from Britain, were wounded during the Caribana parade. Three men were arrested on weapons-related charges after a volley of shots are fired in Marilyn Bell Park beside the parade route.
  • 2011: A man died in a 2011 shooting, while the woman he was with suffered multiple gunshot wounds. putting her in critical condition. Another man was hospitalized after the bullet grazed his eyebrow.[37]

Sponsorship
Logo from 2011 to 2015, when Scotiabank was the naming sponsor.

On May 25, 2011, the festival released its new logo and new name, "Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto".[38] In October 2015, Scotiabank announced that it would end its sponsorship with Toronto's Caribbean Carnival parade after six years.[39]

The festival continued without a naming sponsor until 2017 when became the new title sponsor and the festival became the Peeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival.[40] In June 2019, Peeks' title sponsorship was removed and the festival was called the Toronto Caribbean Carnival for 2019.

Logo Peeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2017-2018

See also

References
  1. "Toronto Caribbean Festival". Toronto Caribbean Carnival.
  2. Toronto Caribbean Carnival or Caribana
  3. 1954-, Foster, Cecil (1995). Caribana, the greatest celebration. Schwarz, Chris, 1948–2007. (Souvenir ed.). Toronto: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0345398165. OCLC 32391351.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. "The Caribana success story". Toronto Star. May 3, 2010. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  5. "Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2020 cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic". Global News. April 9, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2020.
  6. "Why Toronto's Caribbean Carnival is still important 50 years later". Maclean's. Retrieved July 9, 2018.
  7. "Caribana and the meaning of ordered chaos - Spacing Toronto". Spacing Toronto. July 31, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  8. "York University Libraries | Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections online exhibits | Caribana buttons · The Jean Augustine Political Button Collection". archives.library.yorku.ca. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
  9. Phillip, Lyndon. “Reading Caribana 1997: Black Youth, Puff Daddy, Style, and Diaspora Transformations” 2007.
  10. Phillip, Lyndon (2007). "Reading Caribana 1997: Black Youth, Puff Daddy, Style, and DiasporaTransformations". Trinidad Carnival: The Cultural Politics of a Transnational Festival: 102–135.
  11. "50 years later, the beat goes on for the city's Caribbean festival | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  12. "COMMUNITYComments3 Caribana and the meaning of ordered chaos". Spacing Toronto. July 31, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  13. "Old-Time Carnival Characters (ARCHIVE)". Trinidad Investment and Development Co. (TIDCO). Archived from the original on September 7, 2004. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
  14. "Trinidad & Tobago's Folklore and Legends The Mayaro Soucouyant (ARCHIVE)". Paria Publishing. Archived from the original on March 13, 2002. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
  15. Fontaine, Thomson (December 11, 2006). "Of Myths Folklore and Legends – The Story of Lougarous and Soukouyants". TheDominican.Net. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
  16. "Artiste: 3 Canal, Song: Mud Madness". YouTube. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
  17. "Photo of some "Blue Devils" during the 2007 Cricket World Cup-In the Caribbean". Flickr. March 23, 2007. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
  18. "Artiste: 3 Canal, Song: Blue, 1997". YouTube. Retrieved July 31, 2009.
  19. Annemarie Gallaugher. "Toronto Caribbean Carnival, Caribana". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  20. Jackson, Peter. "The politics of the streets: a geography of Caribana". Political Geography. 11 (2): 130–151. doi:10.1016/0962-6298(92)90045-u.
  21. Small, Peter; Jane Armstrong (August 11, 1992). "Caribana expecting bigger profit". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06.
  22. Henton, Darcy (May 1, 1993). "Tourism faces new economy". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A2.
  23. "Caribana fires operating chief". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. May 21, 1993. p. A07.
  24. Wright, Lisa (July 20, 1993). "Caribana bumps and grinds". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06.
  25. Turnbull, Barbara (July 30, 1993). "Party time!". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06.
  26. "A million revellers soak up Caribbean beat". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. August 1, 1993. p. A01.
  27. MacKinnon, Donna Jean (August 5, 1993). "Caribana draws grumbles and rave reviews". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06.
  28. Doyle-Marshall, William, "The festival for all – Envoy targets Board of Trade to boost Caribana", The Trinidad Guardian, September 9, 2004.
  29. Centennial College (July 27, 2010). "Centennial College students getting into the Caribana spirit". Newswire.ca. Retrieved October 3, 2016.
  30. El Akkad, Omar (April 26, 2010). "Scotiabank fails in bid to snag Caribana domain name". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 9, 2010. Scotiabank's unsuccessful attempt to gain control of the potentially lucrative website name became the basis for a case before the global tribunal that resolves such domain name disputes – a case that lawyers say could have set a wide-ranging and controversial precedent.
  31. Toronto Caribbean Carnival cancelled due to COVID-19 www.cp24.com, published April 9 2020
  32. Brent, Bob (August 4, 1992). "Organizers fear violence might thwart '93 Caribana". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A6. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  33. "Car kills two children watching parade". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. August 2, 1971. p. 1.
  34. "Free-for-all erupts on jammed TTC bus". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. July 31, 1971. p. 1.; correction issued August 2 issue, page 2.
  35. "Body of man, 29, found on bottom of lake". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. July 31, 1993. p. A04.
  36. Wright, Lisa (August 1, 1993). "Police find body of man who leapt from ferry boat". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A13.
  37. Hannay, Chris (July 30, 2011). "One dead, two injured in shooting along Caribbean parade route in Toronto". The Globe and Mail. Toronto ON. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
  38. "It’s no longer Caribana: Festival unveils its new name", Carib101.com, May 25, 2011.
  39. "Scotiabank won't renew sponsorship of Caribbean Carnival". CTV News. October 2015.
  40. "Peeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2017", News Release, Ontario Science Centre, June 1, 2017.

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