Jump to content

Caribana: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Line 100: Line 100:
* [http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2010/27/c6887.html Centennial College students getting into the Caribana spirit]
* [http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2010/27/c6887.html Centennial College students getting into the Caribana spirit]
* [http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110517/caribana-new-name-court-ruling-toronto-110517/20110517/?site_codename=Toronto Festival Management Committee has been ordered a new name]
* [http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110517/caribana-new-name-court-ruling-toronto-110517/20110517/?site_codename=Toronto Festival Management Committee has been ordered a new name]
* [http://swaymag.ca/2011/07/centennial-college-partners-with-caribbean-carnival-and-tribal-knights/]
* [http://swaymag.ca/2011/07/centennial-college-partners-with-caribbean-carnival-and-tribal-knights/ - Centennial College partners with caribbean carnival and tribal knights]


===Essays===
===Essays===

Revision as of 01:13, 22 August 2011

This article is about the carnival held in Toronto. For other Caribana Festivals, see Caribana Festival (disambiguation).
Caribana parade, 2010.
Caribana parade, 2009.
Caribana parade, 2009.
Caribana parade, 2008.
Caribana parade participants, 2006.
A racially mixed group of men and women, dressed in red, hold up red signs saying various combinations of the words "Rocco Rossi" and "Mayor". In front is Rossi himself, smiling and wearing shiny beaded chains, sunglasses and a white T-shirt with large golden stars and "Vote Rocco Rossi for Mayor" on it, holding beaded chains.
Toronto mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi campaigning at the 2010 festival

Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto, formerly known as Caribana, is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Annually, the festival draws hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the globe to Toronto's lakeshore. It is a Caribbean Carnival event, that has been billed as North America's largest street festival, frequented by over 1.3 million visitors each year for the festival's final parade.

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 people to the shores of Toronto and over $400 million into Ontario's economy, annually.[1]

Following a trademark law dispute between the original operators of the festival, who still owned the Caribana name, and the current organizers, the festival was renamed Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto in May 2011.[2]

Overview

Caribana was introduced to Canada by immigrants from Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and Jamaica. Much of the music associated with the event, such as steel pan, soca and calypso originated from Trinidad and Tobago. Caribana reflects the Carnival events that take place in Trinidad and Tobago, such as the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival.

While Caribana runs for two 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 Ontario statutory holiday Civic Holiday.

History

Main articles: History of Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto and History of Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto (1967-1971)

Caribana has run annually since 1967, and was originally performed as a gift from Canada's West Indian community, as a tribute to Canada's Centennial. In previous years the main Caribana events have been run by a nonprofit Toronto-based organization named the Caribbean Cultural Committee (CCC). Its board members are mostly made up of expatriat-Caribbean nationals living in Canada. In 2006 the Caribbean Cultural Committee ran into financial troubles and due to lack of financial accountability it was fiscally cut off from the City of Toronto, pending that it gets its financial house in order. During the RIFT the body claimed that it legally held the trademark for "CARIBANA" and in response the City of Toronto fronted the money to put on the Carnival event however it was forced to temporarily change the name to the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana) Festival.

Organizers have long disassociated themselves from the violence that often flares up, during the festival. 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."[3]

Main article: Incidents during Caribana
Year Attendance Notes
1992-08-01 1.1 M[4][5] or 1.5 M[6][7] or 1.2[8] After the event, the City of Toronto forgave its outstanding debt.[7] Hotel partnership formed.[9]
1993-07-19 1 M[10] In May, Caribana fired its operating chief.[5] 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.[11] Caribana Marketplace covered market added at Marilyn Bell Park.[12] A well-behaved crowd and barricades along the entire parade route contributed to an incident-free parade.[10] With attendance down, the board chair blamed the federal and provincial tourism ministries for not funding their American advertising campaign.[8]

Main event

The festival is highlighted by a street parade, which is held the first weekend in August. It 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. The genre played is mainly soca calypso, and steelpan, but you can also find floats which play chutney and reggae.

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 to 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 steel 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] Albeit a little messy, it is supposed to be about having uninhibited fun while parading around town just moving to the rhythm of the music and trying to resemble what evil spirits might partake in at night. Given it is messy, spectators shouldn't wear expensive clothes to/for J'ouvert. If it is a warm night a pair of "short-pants" and a white T-shirt should be enough to take part in the event. Persons not wanting to risk any chance of the paint sticking to their skin can opt to cover their entire body with a thin layer of baby-oil which will keep the water-based paints from dying their skin or hair.

Fêtes

Leading up to the main parade climax, a number of Caribbean music artists will make an appearance in Toronto where they will perform in many smaller parties held around the city by the resident Caribbean community. These parties are generally called "Fêtes" (Pronounced "fett") which is a French-Creole Caribbean word meaning Festival. These Fêtes will usually begin in June–July and will be carried out on the weekends leading up to the parade. Many popular sites including: Toronto-Lime.com, FeteNet.com, IslandMix.com, SocaTherapy.com, TorontoCarnival.com, or KingdomOfSoca.com which are all based in Ontario make up a bulk of the online Caribbean music industry and actively promote the area's fetes. Together, they tend to promote the bulk of the Caribbean events/traditions going on in Toronto.

Bands

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, energy of masqueraders, 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. Each section of the band will tend to have a series of regular costumes that are purchased by people that want to participate in the parade. The amount of costumes usually depends on the size that the band-leader had in mind, the band leader may make anywhere from between a dozen to several dozen costumes made in the same design. Some of them will follow a theme like a Soca song released, a current event, or something to connect with the parade's spectators.

For each section you also tend to have two really large costumes which is known as the King of the band and a slightly smaller piece known as the Queen of the band. These will incorporate part of the design of the many masqueraders costumes which parade just before or just after them. The tradition of King or Queen of the band comes from Trinidad and Tobago where the person willing to spend the most on the costume would wear the king or queen of the band costume to showing off their wealth.

A band leader may make several different sections each with a different costume in order to show off their talent and increase their odds of having at least one of their sections win a prize by the judges.

Audience participation versus Masqueraders

One challenge that all Caribbean Carnivals including Caribana are facing is how to strike a balance between audience (crowd participation) and the needs of costumed masqueraders. In many cases masqueraders have paid money, to buy their costume and to play mas with a band. The draw of the crowd comes in the form of the Caribbean musicians that might be singing live upon the top of a truck. This in many cases leads to fans at the side of the road wanting to join the procession with their favourite artist. This presents some problems to the Carnival. One common problem is overcrowding. This usually leads to the costumes becoming stepped on, or bent by non band members as they swarm around the truck. The crowd also poses challenges when the masqueraders are trying to get to the stage in order for band judging. All of the Caribbean carnivals have tried to determine the correct balance that keeps the crowd from becoming over-anxious in not being able to party with their favourite musicians and in keeping everyone safe under conditions where these big wheeled trucks are running very close to many people.

Competition

In common practice with the rest of the world, money also partly drives the competitiveness in the Caribana carnival. The bands are judged based on their creativity in design and appearance. The music chosen during previous years of Caribana is also a competition for prize money. The songs which are played by each truck during the festival are part of the Roadmarch competition. Many artists in the Caribbean live partly off any prize money winnings, going from event to event and therefore will try very hard to attend the events with the largest prize packages for Roadmarch. Some prizes are cars and other perks.

Nightlife

Caribana also contributes to Toronto's nightlife scene. Many clubs of various types hold special Caribana-related parties in Toronto, as well as many international urban music headliners to larger parties. Past party headliners include musicians such as Kardinal Offishall, Lindo P, Elephant Man, Jay-Z, Kanye West, Big Boi (Outkast), and more. In 2010, musicians such as B-One who gives out mixtapes every year, Lil' B, Comedian Russell Peters, Andy Dick, Britney Spears, Liza Minelli, Rock band KISS, James Bond actor Daniel Craig, Icelandic singer Bjork and Drake all performed at large events. Most performances take place on the final weekend.

Carnival developments

  • In September 2004, the consul general of Trinidad and Tobago pledged to work more closely with the city of Toronto to jointly promote Caribana and to provide direct-knowledge on how Toronto can more effectively grow the festival.[19] Trinidad and Tobago holds an annual Carnival celebration of their own from December until Ash Wednesday, on which Caribana was originally based. Industries and sectors which stand to benefit from more collaboration with Trinidad and Tobago include Toronto's tourism product, the hotels, storeowners, caterers, airlines, transport services and the business community.
  • In early 2006, Toronto municipal government did not renew the funding for the Caribana Cultural Committee (CCC) which has organized the festival in past years citing recurring accounting problems. Instead, the funding was given to the Toronto Mas Band Association which organized the festival in 2002. Due to an ongoing dispute about the ownership of the trademark "Caribana", the 2006 festival is being promoted as "the Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Caribana)". This distinction seems unimportant to most Torontonians, who continue to call the festival simply "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.[20]
  • In May 2010, Caribana occurred under a new initiative created 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.
  • As of September 1, 2010, new management took over the Festival Management Committee (FMC) which names Denise Herrera-Jackson as CEO/Chair of FMC and Chris Alexander as CAO.
  • In July 2011, Centennial College - School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culture returns for the 2nd year showcasing a costume at the King and Queen Show, Grand Parade, This year is the very 1st in Toronto Caribbean Carnival where contributing partner goes before the judging panel with Tribal Knights " Legends of the Orient " and overall ranked 4th Place.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Caribana.

References

  1. ^ "The Caribana success story". Toronto Star. 2010-05-03. Retrieved 2010-06-01.
  2. ^ "Caribana now Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival". CTV News, May 25, 2011.
  3. ^ Brent, Bob (4 August 1992). "Organizers fear violence might thwart '93 Caribana". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A6. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
  4. ^ Armstrong, Jane (5 August 1992). "Crews took 3 days to clean up streets". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  5. ^ a b "Caribana fires operating chief". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. 21 May 1993. p. A07. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  6. ^ Brent, Bob (4 August 1992). "Organizers fear violence might thwart '93 Caribana". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  7. ^ a b Small, Peter; Jane Armstrong (11 August 1992). "Caribana expecting bigger profit". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  8. ^ a b MacKinnon, Donna Jean (5 August 1993). "Caribana draws grumbles and rave reviews". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. ^ Henton, Darcy (1 May 1993). "Tourism faces new economy". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A2. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  10. ^ a b "A million revellers soak up Caribbean beat". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. 1 August 1993. p. A01. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  11. ^ Wright, Lisa (20 July 1993). "Caribana bumps and grinds". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  12. ^ Turnbull, Barbara (30 July 1993). "Party time!". Toronto Star. Toronto ON. p. A06. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  13. ^ "Old-Time Carnival Characters (ARCHIVE)". Trinidad Investment and Development Co. (TIDCO). Archived from the original on 2004-09-07. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  14. ^ "Trinidad & Tobago's Folklore and Legends The Mayaro Soucouyant (ARCHIVE)". Paria Publishing. Archived from the original on 2002-03-13. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  15. ^ "Of Myths Folklore and Legends – The Story of Lougarous and Soukouyants". TheDominican.Net. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  16. ^ "Artiste: 3 Canal, Song: Mud Madness". YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  17. ^ "Photo of some "Blue Devils" during the 2007 Cricket World Cup-In the Caribbean". Flickr. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  18. ^ "Artiste: 3 Canal, Song: Blue, 1997". YouTube. Retrieved 2009-07-31.
  19. ^ The Trinidad Guardian -Online Edition Ver 2.0
  20. ^ El Akkad, Omar (26 April 2010). "Scotiabank fails in bid to snag Caribana domain name". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 9 May 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. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |pmd= and |trans_title= (help)

Essays

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caribana&oldid=446076577"