No fewer than eleven costumed bands “in competition” will be in the Grand Parade at the Peeks Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2018 on August 4. And there will be more “big bands” this year, reports Chris Alexander, Chief Administrative Officer of the Festival Management Committee (FMC) , organizers of the carnival. Speaking at the FMC’s media […]
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Canadian-based singer and composer David Michael Rudder took to the stage Under The Trees at the Normandie Hotel here two Saturdays ago to present many of his hits, old and new, at Rudder 6.5, a concert to celebrate his 65th birthday. The venue was jam-packed with fans of the artste […]
By Stephen Weir There are two constants at all Toronto mas’ band launches. Law number 1: The costume designs will always radically change from one season to the next. Law number 2: Don Moreland will be at every launch, photographing the models in their costumes and recording the elaborate fashion shows. Although Moreland is […]
KINGSTOWN – Two Saturdays ago, hundreds of Vincentians took to the streets for the launch of their biggest annual festival, Vincy Mas’. There were carnival celebrations throughout St. Vincent and the launch climaxed with a street parade here that blossomed with colorful costumes, as revellers got into the swing of things to the hot hot […]
Weekend launch of ‘Bird of Paradise’ and ‘Straight out of John John’ By Stephen Weir Call it Toronto Doubles, if you like. Two mas’ camps holding band launches on the same Saturday night the second weekend in a row. This past weekend it was a pair of long established mas’ camps – the Costume Creators […]
Louis Saldenah’s Mas-K-Club took no prisoners on Saturday night. The biggest band, with a legacy of winning that stretches back to the early days of Caribana, held a dramatic costume launch at the Chandi Banquet Hall in Scarborough in front an estimated crowd of over a thousand people. Sixteen sections with the theme of the […]
Super Blue to headline Mother’s Day fete in Toronto By Stephen Weir Last month, the Toronto mas’ camps with their colourful costume launches, kicked off the 2018 Carnival season in Canada. Next month, calypso singers are making sure their part in the annual festival starts on a high note. On Saturday May 12, a concert […]
By Stephen Weir Freezing Rain. Stinging ice pellets. Blowing snow and streets filled with slush. Car Crashes. Power Outages… Despite warnings to stay off the roads, revellers thumbed their noses at the horrible weather on Saturday night to celebrate the coming summer with the Carnival Nationz Mas’ Camp. “I was shocked to see the sheer […]
By Stephen Weir Early last Sunday morning the doors closed at the York Mills Gallery banquet hall where over 600 disappointed people had showed up for the Toronto Revellers Band Launch. For carnival aficionados, the annual Revellers Band launch is usually an occasion of great excitement. Not so this year. In fact last Sunday’s launch […]
By Stephen Weir Sunday morning at the Grand Deluxe Ballroom in North Toronto and sunrise only three hours away. It was very late even for a mas’ band costume launch, when Tribal Carnival founder Dexter Seusahai and daughter, Celena Seusahai, wearing the showstopping costume, lowered the music and told the wildly clapping fans where their […]
