By Lincoln DePradine Despite a collaboration with the Festival Management Corporation (FMC), under which pannists are able to ply their trade and now earn income at some Toronto restaurants, leaders of the pan movement in the city still aren’t satisfied that the artform is receiving the financial and other support that are required. “Right now, […]
By Arienne Johnson As a little girl at the Church of The Nativity, a black Anglican church in Scarborough with a strong Caribbean presence, I used to admire our church’s steelband. At the age of seven I was too young to join the band but I always stuck around to listen to the rhythm of […]
By Rhoma Spencer Caribana, now known as Toronto Caribbean Carnival, was presented as a gift to Canada as part of the country’s centennial celebrations in 1967. Trinidad and Tobago nationals and their Caribbean counterparts came together to give Canadians a taste of the Trinidad carnival, the pre-Lenten “farewell to the flesh” that culminates in […]
By Lincoln DePradine Calypso and soca artistes, like other Toronto Carnival stakeholders, have been negatively impacted by underfunding and the deadly Coronavirus pandemic, which forced the shutdown of the economy and cancellation of large social gatherings. For performers of every genre, surviving and earning income during COVID-19 have involved utilizing online platforms such as Zoom […]
By Bianca Jacob-Stephenson As Covid-19 crept then ran roughshod through the global population, Toronto Carnival came to a halt rendering the festival of masquerade, music, and mayhem mute after 52 years. It is tempting to assume that the hiatus evoked a sense of loss and dread in bandleaders, particularly two of the most prominent masmen: […]
By Lennox Borel The year was 1967. The Caribana Festival was established by the Caribbean Community in Toronto to celebrate Canada’s 100th birthday. It was an exciting panoply of colourful carnival costumes, calypso music, steel band music, Caribbean food, and hundreds of thousands of people of diverse backgrounds enjoying the festivities. The Festival was a […]
By Ian Jones While it does not kill many people, pan crosses international boundaries and pan music is highly infectious – just ask anyone who is exposed to it for the first time. However, the past 18- months have left the world deep in the throes of the COVID 19 pandemic. The consensus of the […]
Bacchus, it is said, was born in the city of Thebes within the Greek region of Boeotia. He was the son of Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods, and Semele, the beautiful daughter of the Phoenician hero Cadmus. The story goes that Jupiter lusted after Semele, and Juno, the queen of the gods, […]
(From Venice to Toronto via Trinidad and Tobago) By Christopher Pinheiro How did people with no formal art or theatre-training arrive at the extravagant playing-out of elaborate character costumes? Have the Carnival-loving citizens of Trinidad and Tobago become visually literate by the very process of spectatorship and participation in “the Mas”? Can the work […]
Despite claims to the contrary, the Festival Management Committee gives about 5% funding to stakeholders In 1997 bandleaders boycotted the Caribana festival and took the parade “Up North” to Markham Fair grounds. This resulted in the festival being taken seriously by Toronto City Hall and, with the help of Lincoln Alexander, the first significant funding […]
