Toronto’s 57th Caribbean Carnival kicks off on Saturday and revellers are gearing up for another colourful Grand Parade along Lake Shore Boulevard.
The month-long celebration will culminate in a final show of pageantry, where masqueraders will dance to soca music in their elaborate ensembles.
Nicholas Guy, the king of Toronto’s longest-standing and most successful bands, Saldenah Carnival, spent many sleepless nights working on his costume.
“What really drives my adrenaline is the people in the crowd and their faces when they see the bigger costumes come down,” he told CBC Toronto.
Guy said the event represents a lot more than just a street party to him and other participants.
“Everybody comes out, every creed and race, as a unification. That’s the best thing for me. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Toronto is home to the largest carnival in North America with Miami coming in second, according to organizers, and attracts close to two million people to the Grand Parade alone.
‘A huge project’
Saldenah Carnival band queen Michelle Reyes says putting together all the different costumes in the band, from the huge, royal regalia to the back line dancers “takes a village.”
“There’s a lot of gluing, tagging, a lot of assembling, welding, wire bending, so all of that goes into making this costume. It’s a huge project.”
She said volunteers dedicate a lot of their time and money to creating the stunning outfits.
Jennifer Hirlehey, chair of the Toronto Caribbean Carnival, said the festival is looking to find a space to showcase the costumes because many of them “get thrown away at the end of the year.”
“It’s shameful that we’re not able to keep these and have a museum to showcase these beautiful costumes… There’s so much history and culture and learning that can come from [them] and from the parade,” she said.
Toronto Metropolitan University’s Carnival Arts is Canada’s first ever course about the history of Caribbean Carnival. The 12-week course teaches students the culture behind the elaborate costumes and how fashion designers can continue the growth of the carnival industry. CBC’s Metro Morning host David Common spoke with course professor Candice Dixon.
A celebration of freedom
Hirlehey calls the festival a precious gift to Canada from the Caribbean.
Carnival takes place across different countries in the Americas and the Caribbean islands and marks emancipation, the end of slavery.
Hirlehey said even the eye-catching outfits represent that theme of freedom.
“The idea behind it is we get to own our body, we get to own our sexuality and our sensuality, and that’s part of the carnival.”
Louis Saldenah leads Saldenah Carnival and says the legacy of carnival makes Caribbean Canadians proud.
“We are very happy that we brought something to the country.”
But just because the carnival is a celebration of freedom, that doesn’t mean everything goes.
Reyes says if you’re planning on coming to the parade, there’s one piece of carnival etiquette you need to know: no storming the parade route.
“If you’re coming into this just thinking, ‘I’m going to jump into the parade route because it’s a party’, it’s so much more than that. It’s a representation of what we do. It’s hours of work,” she said.
“We want you to enjoy yourself, but also please respect the mas.”
Road closures to expect
The parade kicks off on Saturday at 8 a.m. and will travel along Lake Shore Boulevard.
Road closures for the parade take effect on Aug. 3 at 12 a.m. and continue until Aug. 4 at 7 a.m., including:
- Lake Shore Boulevard W. from Fort York Boulevard to Colborne Lodge Drive
- Lake Shore Boulevard W. westbound between Bathurst Street and Fort York Boulevard will be open to local traffic only
- Strachan Avenue southbound from Fleet Street
A number of Gardiner Expressway ramps will close at 12 a.m. on Aug 3 including the on and off-ramp at Jameson Avenue and the off-ramp at Dunn Avenue.
The parade officially ends at 8 p.m., but many events for the festival will run into the late hours of the night.