Seventh Caribana kicks off with media launch
From Frederick Halley in Toronto
Guyana Chronicle
July 14, 2004
CARIBANA - North America's largest Street Festival - kicked off with a media launch at Metro Hall Square here last Friday, with the organisers bemoaning the fact that federal government is still to announce its financial input.
The City of Toronto has however upped its contribution from C$354,000 to C$360,000, an increase of three per cent while $400,000 has been earmarked from the province.
The official ceremony to open the festival is set for Friday at Nathan Phillips Square while a big children's parade will be staged the following day. This year has seen a reduction in the number of children's parades with Saturday's expected showpiece replacing the three that were held on previous occasions in Toronto's East, West and Northern Boroughs.
Saturday's parade, a junior version of the July 31 street carnival, will therefore be a day-long affair because of the number of participating bands and commences at 10:00 hrs.
According to Chairman of the organising committee, John Kam, thousands of kids and several bands have already signed up for Saturday's parade and carnival as the Caribbean Cultural Committee (CCC) aims to show the children the true meaning of Caribana -friendship, arts and a sense of pride in the community.
Other festival events are the Pan Alive on July 28, King and Queen Extravaganza on July 29, the Grand Parade on July 31 and the Arts and Culture Festival on Olympic Island on August 1 and 2.
The massive parade on July 31 will feature 16 costumed bands as well as steel and guest bands and takes place along the Lakeshore Boulevard from 10:00 – 18:00 hrs.
Now in its 37th year, Caribana was created 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.
Every summer, Toronto blazes with the excitement of calypso, steel pan and elaborate masquerade costumes during the annual festival.
Presented by the CCC, the two-week festival attracts more than a million participants annually, including hundreds of thousands of American tourists.
The main highlight is usually the Caribana Parade, one of the largest in North America.
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.