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| Full house at the Media Launch of this year's Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto festival. Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto |
New events. New
locations. New supporters.
Three weeks of reasons to
Jump Up
May 29, 2012
(Toronto) –In Toronto the carnival season has just begun. At a Tuesday morning press conference
at the Royal Ontario Museum, the media was briefed on what is in store for
Canada’s biggest annual outdoor event.
This is the 45th year for the festival and the Festival
Management Committee is preparing for a huge summer in the streets and parks of
Toronto.
“This year we have moved a couple
of the events – the children’s parade and the international Rugby Match – to
new locations to answer the demands of a growing audience,” explained co-CEO
Denise Herrera-Jackson. “And, this year we making sure that each and ever event
that we manage donates to a different community charity, most noteably Sickle Cell
Anemia.”
The Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean
Carnival is already getting ready for the big parade is August 4th. This is the 45th year for the festival
formally known as Caribana, and not only is going to be bigger; it has new
events, new locations and additional corporate sponsors.
It all starts July 17th at
Toronto’s Nathan Phillip’s Square. The
City Hall square is jammed to see the Official Public Launch for the festival. Dancers, musician, calypso
singers come out and perform to get the city and this always-huge crowd in the
mood for Carnival.
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| MPP Michael Couteau opens presser |
On July 21st the first BIG event
takes place at Downsview Park when the Junior
Carnival Parade takes place. Think of it
as a Kiddie’s version of the big parade. Last year over 2,000 children
performed for the judges and played Mas along the streets of the Jane Finch
corridor. Downsview Park, better suited to handle the growing number of
children taking part is the new location of the parade.
Sport fans will want to take in
the Canada versus the best of the Jamaica Rugby League in a Festival
Cup Match that will be held downtown at
the Lamport Stadium on the 21st
of July. Last year Canada won the match at a field in north Markham.
Dress for most Festival goings on
is casual. However, there is one event where formal wear is the rule of
the evening. The Annual Gala is a
dress up affair to honour the rich history of the festival and to sample the
Caribbean arts. This year it all happens on July 27th at the Liberty
Grande Ballroom inside the CNE grounds.
Many of the world’s best Calypso performers live in Toronto. They will be
showing their stuff in the annual Monarch Contest on July 28th and then again on the 31st at the All-Star Showcase at Harbourfront.
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Jason
Woodman (l), El Dorado Rum, the official rum of Festival.
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And the events keep coming.
There is a huge outdoor Pan Alive
battle of the steel pan orchestras planned for August 3rd at Lamport Stadium. The King and
Queen contest, the day before on August
2nd is always a sell-out, so this year
Lamport Stadium has been reconfigured to allow for almost 20,000 spectators –
up from 11,000.
The August 4th Parade along
Toronto’s waterfront is still the largest outdoor event in Canada! And
this year people are invited to stay up all night. After the parade has ended people are invited into Ontario
Place to take part in the all-new night
all night Fish Fry (10 pm – 4
am), and stay for daytime Sunday food festival. The festival includes a lime
and breakfast on Ontario Place’s
South Beach followed by a retro J’ouvert.
This is Caribbean style parade party with Bahamian Jankanoo, French Creole
Kompas and Zouk, and Grenadian ShortKnee performers. As the day progresses, people will enjoy the live performers
and steelpan music. Take an island hop to tasty morsels such as jerk cuisine
and rum cocktails. Then everyone will wind-down at sunset with an exciting
closing concert.
“We have expanded our programming in part because of we have expanded
our corporate sponsorship base,” continued Denise Herrera Jackson. “ Scotibank
is of course our keynote sponsor. CTV, CP-24, the Toronto Star and Sway
Magazine continue to be our very generous and supportive media partners. We
have added El Dorado Rum as the
official sponsor of our Gala; FLOW radio is back and is taking a bigger role with the festival. We have just added WIN TV and
WIN Radio --a popular Caribbean radio and
television station based in Trinidad -- as our Caribbean media sponsor and will
be live streaming the parade back to Trinidad. “
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| CP-24's Stephen Ledrew interviews ROM curator live at even |
About Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival
The Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival is an exciting three-week
cultural explosion of Caribbean music, cuisine, revelry as well as visual and
performing arts. Now in its 45th year, it has become a major international
event and the largest cultural festival of its kind in North America. As
Carnival is an international cultural phenomenon, the great metropolis of
Toronto and its environs will come alive as the city explodes with the
pulsating rhythms and melodies of Calypso, Soca, Reggae, Chutney, Steel Pan and
Brass Bands. The Festival Management Committee oversees the running of North
America’s largest outdoor festival.
Corporate sponsors of this year’s festival include: Scotiabank, The
Toronto Star, Sway Magazine, CTV, CP-24, FLOW fm, WinTV, WinRadio, El Dorado
Rum, The Canadian Federal Government, The Province of Ontario, City of Toronto,
Tourism Toronto, The Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Ontario Place, Royal
Ontario Museum, Ontario Science Centre, Toronto Public Library, Yorkgate Mall,
Liberty Grand, and Grace Kennedy Foods.
For more information about the
programmes and events, please visit the festival’s official website at www.torontocaribbeancarnival.com.
The Festival Office is NOW located at 19 Waterman Avenue. Contact info:
Tel: 416-391-5608; Fax: 416-391-5693; Email: info@
torontocaribbeancarnival.com.
Stephen Weir Festival Publicist.
Phone 416-489-5868 Cell: 416-801-3101 Email: Stephen@stephenweir.com
