article

This article is about the music festival held in the city of Toronto. For other Caribana Festivals, see Caribana Festival (disambiguation).

Caribana is a festival of Caribbean culture and traditions held each summer in the city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. Annually Caribana draws hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the globe to Toronto's lakeshore. Caribana is a Caribbean Carnival-style event, that has been billed as North America's largest street festival.

The main Caribana events are run by a nonprofit organization named the Caribbean Cultural Committee (CCC). The entire Caribana event, which is one of the first Caribbean Carnivals to be held outside of the region, brings in over 1 million people to the shores of Toronto pumping an estimated $300 million into the local Toronto, Ontario, and Canadian economy.

The festival is highlighted by a massive street parade, with costumed dancers and live Caribbean music, such as soca, calypso, steelpan, reggae and salsa. As with many of the other Caribbean style festivals, there's also a King and Queen of the Bands Competition, and a two-day Caribbean art festival on Toronto's Olympic Island, along with many individual music and cultural events.

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 year.

Caribana attracts spectators, celebrities, musicians, and "Mas" players from all over the world including North America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia to meet in Toronto from mid-July until the first week of August annually.

Developments

In September of 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. * Trinidad and Tobago holds an annual Carnival 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.

External links

Culture of Toronto | Canadian music festivals | Parades | Recreation

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Caribana Festival (Canada)".

Home Page • arts • business • computers • games • health • hospitals • home • kids & teens • news • physicians • recreation• reference • regional • science • shopping • society • sports • world